


Back to the Start

by shortystylee



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: 90s AU, Alternate Universe - 1990s, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Modern AU, Non-Chronological
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-30
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2017-12-09 23:30:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 44,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/779222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shortystylee/pseuds/shortystylee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After ten years together, tragedy strikes in Sansa and Margaery's relationship, leaving Sansa to look back to where they began and how they got that far as she wonders if the world will right itself so that they can continue on. Planned as a series of one-shots from their relationship. Modern AU. Rating subject to change later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Back to the Start

The room was large and clean, with wide eastern facing windows flanked with generic taupe curtains. The seventh floor gave it a great view of Blackwater Bay, you could see the freight harbor with its long, flat ships and the public marina, its docks busy with everything from small fishing boats to extravagant hundred foot yachts. As she turned to look out the window, all she could see were the dim lights of the yachts, but she knew that further down there was the boardwalk, strings of lighted lanterns illuminating the various kiosks selling popcorns and other snacks, children running from game booth to game booth, young couples walking hand in hand in the quickly diminishing daylight. People would pay a lot of money to have a condo that boasted this same view.

 

Where she was, there was none of that. There was the faint, albeit reassuring, ever-present smell of antiseptic cleaning products, the murmur of commotion in the hallway from the nurses on duty that evening, and the low buzz of all the different machines in the room. The television was turned on to the local news station though no one was watching it. All she heard above the white noise surrounding her was the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor attached to her son, _their son_ , as he slept peacefully in the heated little bed on the other side of the room, no idea what was happening in the world around them. She hadn't even held him yet, no one had except the staff. There was another heartbeat, slower paced, but steady, thank the gods, that worried her the most. The doctor had said their son was perfectly healthy, a little underweight from being early but everything else was one-hundred percent.

 

 _Not with Margaery, though_ , Sansa thought, looking over at her love, unconscious, with what seemed like every plastic tube in the hospital going into her at one spot or another. _That's not what they'd said. No one-hundred percents, no reassuring “she'll be fine, Mrs. Stark, don't you worry yourself.”_

 

Margaery's whole pregnancy had gone along surprisingly well, no problems of any sort until a few days ago when little Alen decided to make his way into the world a month and a half ahead of schedule. Really though, it was still fine at first. Alen was born, named after Margaery's late mother Alerie and her grandmother Olenna. As soon as he was out and getting cleaned up, Sansa ran hurriedly out into the waiting room to give the first bit of news to the host of Margaery's brothers, her father and grandmother, as well as what was left of the Stark family in Westeros. There was gleeful screaming and hugging, Loras texting Renly frantically, Jon wrapping his arm around Ygritte and placing a delicate kiss to the top of her head, but then there was panic.

 

There were crash carts and nurses, doctors in full operating attire, gloves up to their elbows, running through the double doors that Sansa had just ran happily out of, and the red light above the door to labor and delivery was flashing out its warning.

 

How something had happened so quickly Sansa didn't understand. She remembered yelling and trying to get back to Margaery, but they wouldn't allow her in. The next thing she remembered was waking up in a hospital bed, IV sticking out of her arm. The clock told her it was about six hours later. Ygritte was sitting in the chair next to the bed, thumbing through a magazine. She explained that after Sansa had been screaming and knocked over one of the nurses she'd been sedated. The doctors came in soon after she woke up, telling her that Margaery had lost a lot of blood, almost too much, and very quickly. She'd lost consciousness and the rest would be a waiting game after the transfusions and surgeries.

 

That was four days ago.

 

Sansa was at Kings Landing General from 8am to 8pm every day, barely leaving the room. Margaery's family was well-off and thankfully they could afford to pay for the private room. Her brother Jon was out of active military duty now, instead having a job at the recruitment and training center at the capital and he would pick her up each night and take her back to the small flat he shared with Ygritte. Ygritte accompanied Sansa to the hospital each day, trying to talk to her, getting her food and lattes from the cafe in the basement.

 

For most of the time in the beginning, Sansa just sat and stared, until one of the nurses mentioned it was a good idea to talk to Margaery. Since then, Sansa sat in the bedside chair, one hand clutching at the wadded up remnants of a tissue, the other gently holding Margaery's hand in hers. She told stories of growing up at Winterfell, stories from when she was at university before they had started dating, describing how little Alen was today, even stories from the news or articles she read in whatever home and garden magazines they had in the waiting room that day.

 

At around 7:45 that evening, there was a quiet knock at the door.

 

“It's alright, you can come in,” Sansa replied, figuring it was another doctor or nurse to tell her she had to leave for the night, or one of the maternity nurses coming to take Alen back to the nursery for the evening. Instead, Sansa turned and saw their daughter Katie run in the room, Ygritte straggling behind her. Katie was four, almost five as she was always quick to remind people, and according to Jon, a miniature replica of Sansa at that age, but she was willful and reminded Sansa so much of her sister Arya. Her wispy auburn-colored hair that was normally curly and unruly had been pulled in two braids by Ygritte that morning and swung back and forth across her back as she ran to her mother. She stopped where Sansa was sitting, and tugged at her denim overall-style romper, adjusting it, clearly not pleased that it was a skirt and not the shorts or pants she wanted.

 

“Mummy! Mummy!” she exclaimed excitedly, “Aunty Gritte took me to the cafe and, and, she got me a chocolate milkshake! It was so cool, she didn't even make me share it, and, and --”

 

“Be quiet, wolf child,” Ygritte chided. “We're not at home. You'll wake the whole hospital up.”

 

“Sorry, Aunty Gritte.”

 

“She's right, Katie. You know you need to be quiet here. I'm sure the chocolate milkshake didn't help,” she remarked, looking up at Ygritte and smiling. No matter what she did or how sad she was, everything Katie said could make her forget, if just for an instant.

 

“Will Mom be okay?” Katie asked as she climbed up in Sansa's lap. “I tried to ask Aunty Gritte but she said I should ask you when we got back.”

 

“She'll be fine, sweetling, don't worry.”

 

“Are you sure? When Aunty Arry had her baby they came home right away.”

 

Sansa sighed. It was true. Arya's labor lasted a whole four hours and she and Gendry were back at home the next morning. “Did I ever tell you that you're too smart? Do you want the real truth?”

 

“Please? I'm almost five now, Mummy, almost growned up.”

 

“You _are_ almost five now, aren't you?” she stated, smiling, then steeling herself. She hadn't talked to anyone directly about what was going on yet, just listened to what was said to her. _Would explaining it to Katie make it suddenly all too real?_ Sansa asked herself. _I have to. She can see what's happening. I can't shield her from this._ “Katie, Mom's not doing so well. The doctors had problems when she had your new brother and she lost a lot of blood. That's why it looks like she's sleeping right now.”

 

“If she's sleeping, won't she wake up soon? Maybe you should kiss her, like in the stories.”

 

 _Oh, my sweet summer child_.

 

“I hope she'll wake up soon, we all do, but for right now all we can do is wait.”

 

“And pray?”

 

“Of course,” Sansa replied, picking Katie up to her kiss Margaery on the cheek, then setting her back on her feet. “Do you remember the song that Mummy taught you?”

 

She nodded her head and started to sing.

 

“Gentle Mother, font of mercy,

Save our sons from war, we pray,

Stay the swords and stay the arrows,

Let them know a brighter day.”

 

Ygritte stood up from the extra chair in the room, and held her hand out, motioning to Katie that it was time to leave. She looked up at Sansa, who nodded, and Katie joined hands with Ygritte, laid her other hand gently on top of the little bed that Alen was in and said goodnight to her baby brother, then headed out into the hallway. Sansa could still hear her singing as she sat down on the edge of the hospital bed, grabbing both of Margaery's hands in hers, careful of all the IVs.

 

“Gentle Mother, strength of women,

Help our daughters through this fray,

Soothe the wrath and tame the fury,

Teach us all a kinder way.”

 

 _Is this what we've come to, Margs?_ Sansa thought. _I truthfully never thought we could get this far. You never doubted though. I'm ashamed I ever doubted you, doubted us. I swear to all the gods that are out there that I'll never doubt us again. Do you remember how we started?_

 

“Ten years ago seems like such a long time...” Sansa said quietly, reaching out to brush Margaery's chestnut brown hair out of her face. “At least I know what we can talk about tomorrow.”

 

She lightly kissed the top of Margaery's head, walked over to say goodnight to her son, pressing her hand up against the hard plastic just as Katie had done, then joined her daughter and Ygritte in the hallway to leave for the night.


	2. Creep

The summer of 1993 was turning out to be one of the longest and warmest on record, even in Winterfell. The dogs and horses they still managed to keep on their property had enjoyed it, the farmers in the North were enjoying bumper crops unheard of in that area for decades, and her younger brothers were certainly enjoying weeks upon weeks of camping outside and swimming in streams that were normally icy cold.

For Sansa, the long summer was continuing and only getting hotter on the road trip south to Highgarden. It took almost two full days of driving, sitting in the middle row next to her younger sister, her mother and father up in front, and every usable space of the Dodge Caravan filled with her belongings and extras for her siblings who were already there.

For as long as she could remember, all that Sansa had wanted in life was to attend college in Kings Landing, the capital and arguably the most metropolitan and fashionable city in Westeros. Even since she had heard about it, she had made plans in her head to go to Maegor College for Women, a thousand year old institution in the old historic city center, still in use from the days when the Baratheons were kings amongst men, instead of just her father's ex-business partners.

That's why the Stark family mini-van was heading along the Rose Road Highway instead of continuing along the Kings Road all the way to Kings Landing. It was just barely two years ago when the investigation of Baratheon Industries for insider trading and embezzlement began, and when all was said and done, Robert Baratheon was out of a job, out of a best friend and business partner, and his wife Cersei Lannister-Baratheon would be spending the next ten years in a minimum security women's federal prison in the Stormlands. Robert himself was spared the brunt of the blame since there were no records or evidence that he had been involved in his wife's doings, but the cost of the business interruption, trial, and lawyers had left the company with no choice but bankruptcy, not to mention that the majority of the money she'd made off with had either been funneled away to off-shore account in Braavos or was long gone up her nose years ago. With no ambition to try to start again, Robert returned to his family's house in Storms' End and as far as Sansa had heard, mostly from overhearing conversations between her mother and father, had resigned himself to drinking, cursing his imprisoned wife, and yearning for Ned's long-gone younger sister Lyanna.

With his mother imprisoned and his father wasting away in what was left of his family's estate, Joffrey had been sent to live with his father Tywin out in the west, a stern grey man with a military background who promptly put his grandson into a private military prep school, officially putting an end to his relationship with Sansa, which when she thought back on it now, had been a relationship dying a slow death from the start. It'd been fun in the beginning, the first boy who liked her, bright blonde hair and green eyes, who looked and dressed like he should be singing in one of those popular boy bands, New Kids on the Block, or whoever was popular at the time. The distance didn't help and as soon as the news broke about the Baratheon Industries scandal, everything went quickly downhill. She missed parts of it, the good times when she went on vacation with the Baratheons to Dorne or the beaches of the Sunset Sea near Casterly Rock, his mother's hometown, and when he was in good moods and would dote upon her endlessly. _In the end though, what did we really have? Sure, he was pretty cute but we had absolutely nothing in common, not to mention how awful he got once he realized I was seriously not going to sleep with him. Should've just ended it right then,_ she thought now, _but it's over now, too late to dwell_.

After the business went under, the majority of the money the Starks had invested was also gone. They still had the income from Catelyn Stark's part-time nursing job at Winterfell City Hospital, but they had to start all over again. Ned was in contact again with his younger brother Benjen, who had continued on the Stark family age-old logging business that they were known for. It was certainly a less profitable and much less glamorous business to be in, and Sansa understood fully that the changes would affect them all, for her, most of all it meant that any chance of going to Maegor was off the table.

Instead, in a few hours she would be joining Robb, Jon, and their long-time friend Theon at Highgarden Provincial University - a thought that used to make her cringe. She smiled to herself now thinking about the way she used to act. The real world kicked Sansa Stark square in the ass when her parents first lost their money and pulled her and her sister out of Mordane Academy and her younger brothers out of Luwin Boys School, and they transferred to Winterfell Public Schools near the end of her sophomore year of high school.

Her older brother Robb and half brother Jon, both the same age, had already accepted to attend university at Highgarden so they weren't really affected much, aside from having to rush to take out student loans instead of using what their parents had been saving. Robb had been allowed to finish out the last month or so of his senior year at Luwin's and Jon had been in the public high school the whole time anyways. When the end of their freshman year came around, her father had gotten it into his head that instead of staying in the dorms or renting one of the outrageously expensive apartments near campus, that they would purchase a small house for Robb, Jon, and their friend Theon to live in. The whole family had gone to move them in during the summer and Sansa remembered now just how run down it was. Sure, everything that needed to work worked to make the house habitable, but save for that it was awful, which was probably the only reason they were able to afford it. Part of the agreement with the boys was that they would all keep jobs and spend their own money and sweat working on repairs to fix up the place. _I hope in the time they've had it they've actually made it seem like a house_ , Sansa thought to herself, getting more and more anxious as they got closer to Highgarden. Each distance sign along the highway seemed to be counting down to her future much too quickly.

A few hours later, they finally pulled up and parked at the curb in front of the house. Sitting on the opposite side of the van from the house, Sansa quickly undid her seatbelt and leaned forward to get a better view from the rolled down car window in the front and took a long look at the house she planned to spend her next four years in. _It's beautiful_ , she thought. _I almost didn't recognize it when we pulled up_. It was still small and the roof looked like it might need some work, but the boys had re-painted the siding a light blue color and replaced all of the gross half broken and half missing shutters with new white ones. She remembered when she was last here and while she could certainly tell it wasn't perfect, she definitely felt like a weight was lifted off of her when she saw even just the outside improvements. Within a few minutes, she saw the screen door fling open, slam against the wall, and soon Robb, Jon, and her brothers' two Husky dogs were all running down the steps leading down from the porch and across the small front yard to greet her parents and sister, all already standing out on the sidewalk. She watched Arya rip open the sliding van door and practically vault herself into Jon's arms as she grabbed her baby pink canvas backpack, slid across the seat to get out of the car, and joined the group, quickly being smushed into a group hug between Robb and Jon, once Arya had finally let him go.

The two days that followed were a blur. Their parents and Arya stayed for the weekend, helping clean up the attic loft that would be Sansa's room and move all of her things in. Afterwards, Ned helped the boys with some of the house projects they were wary of tackling by themselves, some plumbing and electrical, fixing up the front concrete steps to the porch and things like that, and Catelyn managed to wrangle both Sansa and Arya, the latter needing much more wrangling than the former, into helping her cook what seemed like a month's worth of food and then store it all in the freezer. She was amazed at the work her brothers and Theon had done with the inside as well, it was furnished and even somewhat decorated for a house with three college guys, and not just by movie posters. Sure, the faucets were all a little leaky, the water pressure was awful, they'd said the hot water heater was quite temperamental, and she found she had to put her full body weight into her bedroom door if she wanted it to shut all the way, but it was far better than she originally imagined. _Maybe I was expecting something a little more Animal House_ , she thought.

By the time her parents and Arya had finally pulled away from the curb on Sunday, she felt like it was the first time she'd been able to sit down in ages, in spite of just having sat in the car for two whole days not forty-eight hours prior. _Classes would be starting on Wednesday, only two full days away_ , she told herself, so instead of allowing her the time to sit and think, she ran back up the stairs to her room, now furnished and somewhat organized, and grabbed her backpack.

"Robb? Jon? I'm gonna head out for a little bit and check out where my classes are for Wednesday, okay?" She yelled from the front door as she put her shoes on, but all she heard were some grumbled words of acknowledgement from the living room and the noise from the television.

_Well, I guess that's as good as any answer they'll give me_ , she thought to herself smiling. She was glad they'd been able to convince the housing office to allow her to live off-campus, something that normally was mandatory for incoming freshman. _It'll be good though, living with Robb and the guys. I can't believe how much I missed them when they left two years ago… even Theon, obnoxious as he might be at times I got used to having him around._ The only part that worried her about living off campus was making friends. After getting pulled out of Mordane's in the end of sophomore year, she was startled and, above all, actually pretty angry about how the girls she thought were her friends had treated her after her move to Winterfell High. _You'd think I had personally insulted them by moving schools and moved halfway across the country with the way they cut me off. None of what happened was my fault, not even my family's fault, and if it wasn't for Jeyne I would never have known what was going on. Gods, I wish Jeyne was here_ , Sansa thought, crossing the street that led to the main campus and the student union. She'd known Jeyne Poole since as long as she could remember. Her family was not nearly as well off as Sansa's had been and Jeyne had only been able to attend Mordane's one a number of scholarships, which already made her somewhat of a social pariah from the start. After graduation, she had decided to stay and take classes at Winterfell Community College, telling Sansa she wanted to save money and promising to join her down in Highgarden for their junior year.

The rest of the evening Sansa spent slowly strolling around campus, map and class schedule in hand, exploring and plotting out on the map where all of her classes were and how long it would take to walk to each. If there was one thing that Sansa Stark hated it was not being on time. After finishing her self tour, she stopped by a cafe she'd passed on the way there, grabbing a coffee, and thinking about what her mother and father had both said before they'd left, also picking up a job application from the shift manager. _I practically lived at the coffee shop back home... how hard can it be?_

Getting home, she toed her shoes off into the pile just inside the front door and went straight up to her room.

"What the... ugh, it's hot as the seven hells in this room..." she swore out loud to herself. It was still nice outside during her walk back, so as quick as she could, she threw her bag onto the bed, which creaked from the new weight, and then pulled open the window that opened out over their backyard. _Huh, I wonder if that would work_ , she thought, noticing that the window led out to a good five or so feet of roof. _Well, better than being hot inside. You're not afraid of heights anyways_. Coffee in hand, she climbed out the window and sat on the roof, long legs straight out in front of her and leaning up against the siding of the house once she found it was clean enough. Although not very high up, the roof gave her a much better view of the other houses in the neighborhood, mostly old bungalows like theirs, with a few ranches or big brick houses like the one next door thrown in the mix every so often. _I can definitely get used to this_ , she thought, looking around at her new neighbors.

The only two yards she was able to see into were the houses on either side, the one of the left looked to be an exact match to hers, with a backyard full of lawn chairs, a big fire pit, and a couple games of corn hole on the far side, though no one was actually out there yet. The house to the right was must more interesting she decided. The backyard was quite a bit deeper than hers, probably about twice as much, and looked like it had been plucked straight out of a gardening magazine. She'd heard all about the old mansions of the Reach and their sprawling gardens but she never thought she would have a miniature version of one not twenty feet from her house. _The yards at the old Stark Estate couldn't even compare to what was in that small backyard_ , she thought. Midway through her thoughts, she saw someone come out into the open area of the yard that held a barbecue grill and a large dining table and chairs set on a wooden patio. It was a girl, probably close to her age, but Sansa figured maybe older if she already lived here. She wore a simple knee length dress with a floral pattern and cap sleeves, a pair of forest green Wellington boots, a large floppy sunhat, and carried a woven basket full of flower clippings and a couple tomatoes. She set the basket down on the table, looked up to the sky, and took off her hat, letting loose a tumble of wavy chestnut brown hair that settled somewhere just below her shoulders.

She finally turned towards where Sansa was sitting and looked up. _Oh great, she probably just thinks I'm some weirdo sitting up on the roof to watch people. She's really pretty though, I bet Theon used to hang out up here all the time until I moved in_ , she thought, a smile spreading across her face as she tried not to laugh out loud at that thought. The girl noticed her though, but didn't seem to mind, just folded her hat up under her arm, smiled and waved at Sansa, and before picking the basket back up and going inside her house.

_Well, since that's arguably the most exciting thing that's happened today, I might as well head inside._ What was left of her coffee had cooled off and the sun had set almost completely as she climbed back through her window and into her room.

The next two days came and went without any real commotion. Robb worked Monday so Jon showed her more of the actual city of Highgarden and Robb showed her more of campus when Jon worked the next day as well as where all the grocery stores, banks, and those types of places were, not to mention drop off her application at the cafe. They had a couple of friends over on Monday night, Jon's girlfriend Ygritte, Robb's girlfriend Jeyne Westerling, among some of their other friends from class, a girl named Osha, and some other guys, Gendry and Hot Pie. They were all pretty fun, Sansa thought when she looked back on it. Ygritte was a graduate student a couple years older than Jon, same with Osha, but the rest were all in their junior year like Robb and Jon.

Each evening though, once she was thoroughly disgusted with the temperature in her room, she'd open her window again and climb out onto the roof. _Why did I ever think I'd do well in the South? I guess the winter is in my veins just as much as it is for Arya and the rest of them_. She'd read for awhile, until the dusk got too dark and started to strain her eyes, and each evening she'd notice the girl next door, working in the garden, floppy hat, long tunic or flowery dress, and a basket full of what she'd gathered that day. She'd always look up and notice Sansa sitting on the roof, smile widely and wave, only to get Sansa's somewhat embarrassed wave in return.

The next morning, Sansa woke up early, making sure she would have enough time to get ready for her first morning of classes. As she paced across her room, holding up various outfits to herself and laying the ones that made the first cut down on the bed, she noticed movement next door out the corner of her eye. When she walked over to the window, she saw the same girl again, the one who had smiled and waved at her each time she saw her. She was dressed in black leggings with an oversized red flannel shirt belted at the waist and mid-calf motorcycle boots, squatting down in front of a row of large terra cotta pots with small garden shears in hand and that same basket, collecting what looked like could only be herbs from each of the pots. Sansa did realize she was staring until the girl quickly turned her head as if something had startled her. _Oh, crap, crap, crap, don't look up here. I promise I'm not trying to creep on you. She must be starting to think it's odd that I'm always on the roof, it's just there's no air and all the heat rises to my room,_ Sansa thought. She let out an audible sigh a moment later when the girl was joined by a couple other people, all guys, in the garden. _They must have just called her name from the house or something, that's gotta be it_.

"Alright, Sansa, enough being weird, it's time to get ready."

After a half hour or so, she was dressed and ready to go, and she finally heard the guys moving around downstairs. _Ya know, I've never seen any other girls in the house next door except for her… That's it. I'm gonna make a point to find out who she is and introduce myself next time I see her. That's how people make friends, right? Talk to their neighbors. I bet Robb and Jon know some of the guys I see there too._ Putting her books she'd need for her three classes today into her bag, she finally made it downstairs for breakfast.

"So… I was just kind of curious, but you don't happen to know the neighbors, do you?" Sansa asked, sitting down at the table in the open spot next to Jon.

Robb was busy reading through the back of the cereal box, same as he used to do when they'd all gather for breakfast around the large table in their old house, except only this time he wasn't barricading himself in with all the boxes so no one could see him. "Huh?" he asked, looking away from the box and over to his sister across the table.

"The neighbors. You know, big house on the right with the gardens in back."

"Yea," he nodded, pausing to take in another spoonful of cereal, "Everyone knows them. It's the co-op house the Tyrell family started forever ago. Growing Strong Co-op, I think it's called. Guess it was originally for botany or forestry majors or something like that but now anyone can apply to live there. Why? What's up?"

"Nothing's up. Just thought it'd be good to make some friends that are girls. As much as I love you three and your various friends it would probably be a good idea to branch out a bit. Don't really know anyone here yet and I've seen one of the girls over there who's in the gardens all the time. Shorter than me, wavy brown hair, almost always wearing something flowery." _Except for today_ , she thought to herself.

Robb sat back in his chair as if he was giving it some thought, looked over at Jon and Theon, both who just shrugged, then back to Sansa. "I'll bet it's Margaery. She's the only one I think that works on the gardens... but I'm, um, not certain if she's a good choice."

"What? What's that supposed to mean?" Sansa asked, not having any clue at what her brother was on about.

Robb looked around the room sheepishly for a few seconds. "Margaery Tyrell might not be content with, um, how do I put this? Being just friends with you."

"Robb!" Jon yelled from next to Sansa, his eyes throwing daggers over at Robb.

_Seriously, that's what this is about?_ "Oh, come on, Jon," she said, huffing indignantly. "I spent how many years at Mordane's? You don't think I had friends that were into girls?"

Robb and Jon looked between each other, not really sure what to say. They seemed somewhat embarrassed that they'd even brought that up now. The three of them had paid no mind to Theon though, silently sitting at the end of the table staring at his toast, seemingly more intrigued by his breakfast than anything else, until he looked up at everyone else a moment later.

"So, Sans, why don't you tell us all about it then?" He asked, trying not to laugh.

"Hey! Shut the fuck up, Greyjoy. That's my little sister you're trying to perv on," Robb yelled back and the kitchen table quickly went from a somewhat regular conversation to Robb and Jon threatening to kill Theon should he entertain those types of thoughts regarding their sister again.

_Really, guys, it's not that big a deal_ , Sansa thought, getting up from the table and walking her dishes over to the sink. "Just forget I asked about it, okay? I'll see you later though, don't wanna be late on my first day."

Three days passed and by the time Friday rolled around, Sansa was at her wits' end and about to call this whole thing quits. Within three days of classes, she'd been overwhelmed by all the syllabuses and requirements, classrooms full of hundreds of students, rude workers in the student union, showing up to the wrong buildings multiple times, and to top it all off she didn't think she'd talked to more than a handful of people in her classes, most not really wanting to have any sort of conversation with her.

Frustrated, she headed straight upstairs once she got home, ignoring the calls from Robb and Jon playing the Sega in the front room, dropping her backpack full of books on the floor and climbing out once again on to the roof. _Oh, and you know what's worse, too?_ Sansa thought, _I never even heard back from the coffee place about that job. I've checked the machine every day and no messages, nothing_.

"I just don't know," she finally said out loud. "Maybe… maybe, I don't belong here."

"What'd you say?"

"Who's there?" Sansa called out, momentarily jolted out of her self-pity and into defense mode, eyes busily scanning everywhere until she saw where the voice came from.

It was the girl from next door, looking up at her, arms crossed in front of her leaning on the flat tops of the fence boards. She must've been on a step ladder to see over it, it had to be at least six feet.

"Hey, don't worry," she replied, the same smile and wave again, albeit a little more reserved this time. "Just me. You alright up there?"

"Yea, I'm fine," Sansa replied curtly.

"You sure? You just seem a bit upset, that's all."

_Gods, can she please stop talking? This rooftop is supposed to be my little cool down area_. "Why do you care if I'm upset?" she snapped back, immediately regretting it.

She watched the girl look down at her feet and run a hand through her hair before looking up at Sansa again. "Oh, well then. I guess I'll leave you to yourself." She said and started to step down from her ladder.

"Hey, wait, listen. I didn't mean to say that. I've just had a really crap day, that's all. I shouldn't take it out on you, I don't even know your name."

By the time she was done speaking, the girl had come back up the fence and was leaning over again. "It's Margaery," she said, "Margaery Tyrell. I've noticed you up there for a while and kept waving. Kinda wondered when you'd finally say something."

"Well, sorry I had to be so rude, it's not usually like me. I guess this whole new in town thing has gotten to me, ya know. Don't really have anyone to talk to about it yet," she offered as somewhat of an excuse. "Oh, I didn't say yet, but I'm Sansa Stark. My brothers and their friend live here too."

"Well it's nice to meet you. Don't be shy though, you don't have to sit up on that roof and talk to yourself, ya know?" She looked down at the green watch on her wrist as it started to beep. "Shit. Sorry, Sansa, I've gotta run… but hey, we're having a bit of a party tomorrow night, people'll start showing up around eight or so. Sort of a blow off steam from the first week back to classes thing. You should come, if you're not too busy."

"Yea, thanks…" Sansa said, watching her smile and climb down from the ladder and disappear inside the house. _Well, that certainly wasn't how I expected this evening to go_ , she thought. _Robb and Jon will probably hate it but I think I'll take her up on that invite._

Sansa was doubting herself once again as she walked up the steps to the house next door at around quarter to nine the next night. _This was a horrible idea_ , she thought. She'd taken almost an hour getting ready, messing with her bangs, playing with her hair, before finally decided just to blow it out and throw it in a messy braid. _Messy was in now, right? That whole grunge scene?_ She had picked out a pair of fitted light washed jeans, a tight plain baby blue t-shirt, and a new yet old leather jacket, which used to be her mom's from way back when.

The front yard sloped gently, just as hers did, and a wide brick paver pathway led up to the front, flanked by wooden planter boxes full of wildflowers. The large three story brick house sat in front of her and she could hear the music coming out loudly through the opened windows, even more loudly than it was ten minutes ago, when she sat on her bed in the loft room, waiting for her brothers to leave so she could walk over without them knowing. She recognized the song, Two Princes by Spin Doctors.

The front door, brick red and matching the shutters, was closed, and falling back on the etiquette lessons from childhood, she rang the doorbell and waited, nervously bouncing back and forth between her left and right foot. A few seconds passed and no one had opened the door yet. "This _was_ a bad idea," Sansa said out loud softly. _I bet that girl was just being polite_ , she thought, but as she stated to turn around she heard the door open.

"Well, what have we here?" The man's voice said. In the doorway blocking her entrance were two men, both looked to be around Robb and Jon's age, maybe a bit older. There was a step up between them, making them look tall but she realized that because of that they were actually of a height with her. The one who had spoken was leaning casually up against the door frame, and staring down at her with bright blues eyes and dark brown, almost black, hair that was long and pulled in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He wore a black t-shirt with a faded yellow stag design on the front paired with expertly ripped jeans that bunched up around where they met his leather boots.

"I, ugh, I'm new," Sansa spat out. "I just moved in next door and..."

"Next door?" He said excitedly, cutting her off. "With Robb and Jon? Really... gods what I wouldn't give to-"

"Renly! Stop!" The other man said, playfully shoving him before slipping his arm protectively around his waist. He was trimmer, perhaps the build of a swimmer or a runner, with crazy curly dark blonde hair and a forest green flannel over a light grey t-shirt. "You've scared the girl half to death with your first question, just look at her," he said, motioning towards her, "and I don't like you talking about how you pine over her roommate."

Sansa looked back and forth between the both of them, thinking for a moment that they did actually make a cute couple, before she managed to speak. "...brother." Sansa squeaked out. _Stop talking like that, Sans, all nervous. They're just neighbors, just college kids, no different from you._

"What'd you say?" Renly asked quickly.

"I said," she began, "He's not just my roommate. He's my older brother. Jon's our half-brother."

Renly stood and looked her over, but the curly haired one spoke first. "I can definitely see that now. The hair, the eyes, the height. It's pretty obvious now why Margs -"

"It's pretty obvious that you're annoying my new friend, big brother." Sansa let out a sigh of relief as Margaery butted in, as if she'd been holding her breath this whole conversation. This was the first time Sansa had seen her look a bit different. Instead of the flowered dresses, this time she had on denim cut-off shorts and a large university sweatshirt, the neckline cut so it fell off her shoulders. She placed herself between the two men and looked down at her. "Sorry, Sansa, I was out in the yard. Didn't hear the bell, I guess. Well," she said, looking between the two men, "I see you've met my old brother Loras and his boyfriend Renly. Loras Tyrell, Renly Baratheon, this is our new neighbor, Sansa Stark. Just started at Highgarden this past week. Now, if you'll excuse us, I invited her over for the party, not to stand on the porch and get the third degree from you two." She smiled and turned her gaze back towards Sansa and offering her hand out to her. "Come on."

Grabbing her hand, Sansa mumbled a "Nice to meet you" at Margaery's brother and his boyfriend, before planting her feet at the entrance when the realization of who she had just met dawned on her.

"Wait, did you say Baratheon?" Sansa asked. "As in Robert Baratheon? Baratheon Industries?"

Renly looked over at Sansa and laughed a little bit at her question. "Yes, dear, guilty as charged. Though, not actually guilty. Robert's my oldest brother and fortunately for me I was nowhere near involved with his company. But you're a Stark though, so I'm sure you're well aware of what happened."

"I've done my best to put it behind me, as did the rest of my family. I'm sure you can understand," Sansa replied.

"Definitely. Now go enjoy yourself, Stark."

Sansa nodded and smiled, grateful that the one Baratheon she'd managed to run into seemed to be nothing like Robert, before allowing Margaery to tug on her arm to pull her into the house and through the mobs of people inside. A lot of them parted when they saw Margaery coming and Sansa had to guess there was probably about a hundred people throughout the house. _Even more if this house has a basement_ , she thought. _I wonder if this is the type of party I missed out on in high school? Joff was always talking about the keggers he went to in Kings Landing… either Winterfell High had no such thing or… well maybe I just wasn't invited._ Something told her Arya had managed to get the invites. She'd made friends quickly after changing schools, mostly guys, and had many more friends as well as less fights than she ever did at Mordane's.

"Do you know all these people?" Sansa asked, almost yelling, when they got into the kitchen at the back end of the house. The music was switching back and forth between alternative and the latest Top 40 dance hits.

Margaery shook her head as she pushed herself up to kneel on the counter, making her well above Sansa. "Oh, gods, no. Not even close. There are two floors above us and about 20 people that live here in total, so I'm sure that most of the people here are connected to someone." She turned to her left, opening the tall cupboard and pulling out two quart sized mason jars from a shelf she would've never been able to reach from the ground.

"Do you want anything? There's pretty much everything you'd want. Beer, wine… I could probably mix you up something but I give no guarantees that it won't taste like crap. Lots of soda, too, if you don't drink or whatever." She hopped off the counter and opened the fridge, facing away from Sansa and pushing various items around.

"Wine would be good," Sansa replied. "Back in the North all everyone ever talked about was how good the wines were down here in Highgarden and in the Arbor."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but even though this is the Reach, we're still all poor college kids, so while we've got some wine from the Arbor," she said, letting a bit of a giggle escape and plopping a large container down on the counter, "It's just in a box."

"That's fine. I don't know what I was expecting," Sansa replied, a little bit embarrassed. She watched as red wine filled the jar and Margaery handed it to her.

"Now," she started, "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't all sorts of curious about what could possibly have made you so worked up yesterday when you've only been here a couple of days. Let's go out back. It'll be quieter and I'm pretty positive I'll freak if I have to listen to this damned Jane's Addiction song again. It's like five years old and Loras still has it on repeat."

Before Sansa had time to protest, Margaery had the box of wine put away in the fridge and was making her way towards the doors. She followed behind her through the set of double doors that led from the kitchen to the back porch, and Margaery led her to a wooden bench swing, set back against a row of trees on the edge of the porch. Sansa'd never noticed it before, but all of the trees surrounding the porch had little miniature lights strung up in them.

_Do I really even want to talk to her about the other day? Thinking back on it now I just feel so stupid, like some little girl that gets upset when the other kids in the park don't want to play with her_ , Sansa thought, intently staring into the jar of wine before taking a large gulp.

"Hey, I know you don't know me very well," Margaery began after a few seconds of Sansa's silence, "but you can trust me, okay? You're stuck in that house full of dudes, I'm sure you wish you had a sister to talk to."

_Might as well_ , Sansa thought. _She's been so nice so far and she's right about needing someone to talk to… maybe not the sister part as I'm sure Arya would've just made fun of me about this by now._

When she finally looked up at Margaery and started to talk, everything she'd been mulling around in her head came rushing out.

"I spent so long dreaming of moving south, first Kings Landing then here, but I don't know, what with classes and finding a job and finding my way around. You know on Thursday I went to the wrong building twice? This whole up and changing thing, my little sister Arya is so much better at it then I am. She had no problems leaving our private school and heading to public school, and it was awful for me, and I hope this isn't starting out the same way," she explained, taking a deep breath before starting again. "I don't have any friends here, except for my brothers and their friends. Really, I don't know what I expected, I just thought it'd be different. Easier." She paused for a second to take another large drink of the wine. It was too cold, too sweet, but she really couldn't have cared less. "You're the first person that's actually talked to me and I wouldn't be surprised if you thought I was just some sort of creep with the way I've been up on the roof all the time. I swear, I'm not a weirdo, it's just not air conditioned in my room and—"

"Whoa, now, slow down a bit. First, I definitely don't think you're a creep. Second, you'll get the hang of it," Margaery replied. "You should've seen Renly his first week of med school. Could've sworn a bomb had gone off in his head. Seriously though, no one ever knows what they really want at first. I wanted to be the queen when I was little. Seems like Loras stole that one from me," she joked calmly, little to no expression or change in her voice.

Sansa finally looked up at that, laughing loudly and letting herself smile.

"There, smiling. That's better," Margaery remarked, then changed the subject. "So, I take it you've never been to Highgarden?"

"Not to be sarcastic, but aren't we in Highgarden?"

"Let me ask you, if someone wanted to see the North, would you only show them a couple classrooms at Winterfell Community College and a few of the shops around the corner?"

"No, I mean, of course not!" Sansa said excitedly, turning her body to face toward Margaery on the bench and pulling her leg up and under her. "There's the waterfalls in the Wolfswood, fountains in White Harbor… and oh! The weirwood groves and heart trees, you Southerners don't have those down here anymore," she added.

"We don't, and that's exactly the point. This street and the campus isn't all of the Reach. I'll show you. You will love Highgarden as I do, I know it," Margaery promised, reaching out to fix a loose strand of hair that had come out of Sansa's braid. She took her hand and placed it on top of Sansa's, grabbing and holding on as Sansa looked up at her with wide eyes. "You will see, Sansa. Now, come on, let's get back inside. I'll introduce you to everyone."

Sansa nodded as Margaery stood up, still holding on to her hand and helping her off the bench, before finally letting go. For a moment, she stood still, somewhat missing the comforting gesture from her new friend. As they walked towards the front door, a bit of doubt started to nag at Sansa. _This really has to be too good to be true_ , she thought.

"Did you mean it?" Sansa asked as Margaery held the screen door open. "You'll really show me Highgarden and the Reach?"

"Sweet summer child, of course I meant it." She held the door open with her backside and pulled her arm around Sansa, guiding her back into the party. "Next Saturday sound okay for our grand tour? Once you see it, you'll never want to leave."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a while, but I finally got motivated for a second chapter. I've decided to set it in the early 90s because I've been loving the 90s Sansa fanart I've seen on tumblr. Title of the chapter is for Creep by Radiohead, which just happened to be in the US top 100 charts in August 1993. Enjoy :)


	3. Come to my Window

**Ch 3: Come to My Window (March 1994)**

There were three days left in Highgarden's spring break vacation, two days until Robb and her were going to the train station together to pick up Sansa. She had wanted to plan an awesome spring break for just the two of them, this being Sansa's first college spring break and their first real break since they'd officially started dating, but Mrs. Stark had called last month, complaining of missing her baby girl, and reluctantly Sansa had agreed to spend the week back at Winterfell.

This was exactly why she was surprised to hear Loras yelling across the house for her at 10pm, saying that Robb Stark was at the front door asking for her.

"We don't go pick up Sansa for like, two days, Loras," she yelled back from her spot at the kitchen table. Early March meant she had little time left to go through her seed catalogs for this year's garden, which was what she was busying herself with at the moment. She wasn't alone, the two girls, Sarah and Kelly, who shared the room next door to hers sat at the table with her, looking through an old issue of Cosmo, and another housemate was making a pot of coffee in the kitchen.

About thirty seconds later, Loras came into this kitchen with Robb at his heels. "I know we weren't supposed to pick her up until Sunday, but this is important. We can't pick her up then, she's been here since Wednesday morning."

"What?" Margaery asked loudly.  _Calm down, there's gotta be a reason. Family things, right?_ "Why didn't you tell me? …why hasn't she come over here?"

"Come over to the house, I'll explain what I know," Robb said. Margaery quickly placed a bookmark in her catalog, put on a pair of sandals that were sitting by the door, followed Robb next door and joined Jon and Theon who were already sitting in the wicker porch chairs.

"Now, we don't really have much of an explanation. I called our dad and he said she got into a huge fight with mom, and just to give her some time to cool off," Robb started, sitting down in one of the chairs and motioning for Margaery to take a seat too. "She called from the train station early Wednesday morning and just told us to come pick her up and not to ask questions. She went straight up to her room as soon as we got back and she's been there ever since. Door's locked from the inside. She won't talk to any of us when we knock, but we hear her up there walking around, hear the music from her stereo change."

"Wait, so she hasn't been eating?" Margaery asked, the worry starting to come through in her voice.

"She comes down at night," Jon said. "I think she waits until we're all asleep and then raids the fridge."

"We talked and we were hoping she might let you in," Theon said. "Maybe she'll talk to you about whatever happened. It's not like her to argue with Catelyn, they always get along so well. You'll try though, right?"

"Yea," Margaery said, nodding her head yes. "Of course I'll see if she'll talk to me."

Jon opened the front door and the three boys watched Margaery climb about halfway up the stairs.

"Sansa! It's me, babe, Margaery. Your brothers and Theon are worried sick about you up there. You okay with unlocking that door and letting me in?"

They waited in silence for a few moments and heard nothing. Margaery asked again and they could plainly hear Sansa's footsteps and the creak her bed always made whenever you first sat on it, but nothing like what the door unlocking would sound like.

 _Well, I can see where this is going. Probably gonna need to break out some strategy for this_.

"Alright boys, out of the way. I've got an idea that'll get this done." She turned and hustled down the half flight of stairs, turning the corner and letting herself out the door that led to the Stark's small back yard. She was quickly followed by Robb, Theon, and Jon, the first which turned on the lights in the backyard in time to see Margaery already making her way back from the garage with a ten-foot tall ladder.

"Seven fucking hells, Margaery," Theon swore, "You're not actually going to climb up to her window are you? It's pitch dark out here."

"It's not like any of you had better ideas. She's still hiding away after two days, isn't she?" She paused for a minute, pushing the ladder open and securing the legs apart. "Robb was the one that decided to wait until it was 10pm and pitch dark out to tell me that my girlfriend is in trouble, so yes, I am going up there right now. Jon, if you'd be so kind as to hold the ladder, since you're closest and all."

Jon stepped forward and held the legs steady on the poured concrete deck as Margaery made her way up the ladder, silently cursing her quick decision to wear sandals. Crawling the couple of feet on the shingles, she could see Sansa on her bed, sitting on top of the comforter, upright against the gold-toned metal bed frame with a pillow behind her back. The overhead light in the ceiling fan was turned off but both of the pastel blue lamps on the bedside tables flanking her bed were on. At her left was the Adidas shoebox which Margaery recognized as the one Sansa kept all of the pictures she'd brought with her from home. Most of those that had been taken since she'd moved to Highgarden were stuck in a half circle around the mirror on her dresser. She was going aimlessly through a handful of pictures and didn't look up to notice Margaery on her roof until she heard the noise of the window opening and saw her climb inside.

Sansa squared up the pictures she had in her hand and set them carefully back into the shoebox as Margaery closed the window tight behind her and toed off her sandals. There was not much room on Sansa's bed, but she scooted over a bit, allowing Margaery to fit herself in next to her. A few seconds went by and then she felt Sansa finally relax a bit, slumping down and allowing her head to rest on the shorter girl's shoulder.

"Sansa, you've gotta tell me what happened. Robb said you got back early two days ago and have just sat up in your room since then. He said you've been coming downstairs after the guys are asleep and taking food from the fridge. I'm just worried, that's all," Margaery explained, trying her hardest to get her worries out into words, but not sound upset. "You didn't even tell me you were coming back early."

"I didn't expect to, but, crap, Mags, it just got so out of control. I couldn't deal with it. I couldn't deal being around her knowing I was making her feel like that. I had to leave so I called Jeyne and had her drive me to the train station a couple days ago."

"Her? You mean Arya? Did you two fight again? Because if this is all her -"

"No, not Arya. She's been lovely actually." Sansa had reached her right arm out by this point, her right hand finding Margaery's left, lacing their fingers together as she took a deep breath. "It's my mother... I sort of awkwardly came out and told them about us. I didn't mean to, but she just kept going on and on about all these nice, attractive, and single male interns at the hospital, how they'd be perfect for me, and how much I needed to make sure I found myself a good man while I'm at university. It was all I heard for practically thirty six hours in a row."

XXXXXXX

Despite listening to her mother gossip about all the new interns at her work through most of family dinner the previous night, Monday lunch actually came around fairly quickly. Arya's mid-winter break was the previous month when she'd visited Highgarden, so she was home and had invited Sansa to hang out with some of her friends on Sunday night since Jeyne had to work. However, with Arya at school, now it was just her and her father sitting around the kitchen table as her mother finished bringing in lunch.

"Mom, you know you really don't have to cook up lunches like this just because I'm home. I don't eat like this at school. It's really not necessary," she said, staring at the trays of homemade sandwiches and potato salad, deviled eggs, and fruit that Catelyn was carrying in. "Jon's actually perfected the best cooking time for cup noodles and believe it or not, Theon makes about the greatest grilled cheese this side of the Wall."

"Oh, I think it's perfectly necessary for lunch, Sansa," Ned replied, tapping his foot against hers under the table. Sansa knew this lunch was made especially for her and also knew that her father rarely came home from work for lunch, choosing to eat his sack lunch with her brother Benjen and the other hourly workers. _Solidarity, or something like that, he'd told me once_.

"So, Sansa, if you're not busy tonight after dinner, there's an intern at the office who's dying to meet you," Catelyn started, bring the last of the food over and sitting down across from Sansa and her father. "I know he's a few years older than you, but he's going to be a doctor one day, you know, and those ones don't stay unattached for long."

"Mom, I really don't –"

"Now don't worry, it's just coffee. Besides, I think I know your type by now. Fair-skinned, dashingly handsome, bright eyes… oh! I think I might have a picture in the office from our last work dinner. I'll just run and –"

"Mother, stop!"  _Oh, crap that was too loud_. "I'm sure he's an awesome guy but I'm not meeting him for coffee. I'm not meeting anyone for coffee."

When her father took the conversation away from Catelyn for a second it felt like a gift from the Seven, but Sansa was wary of the road this conversation was heading down. She knew she would need to tell her parents about Margaery at some point in time, she just didn't expect it to be now. "No worries, sweetheart. You don't have to meet with anyone you don't want to. Besides, sounds like you've got someone back at school anyways. Who's the lucky guy that's gonna steal my daughter away from me?"

_Moment of truth._

"…Margaery Tyrell," she answered quietly, knowing she was mumbling out the majority of it.

She watched as her mother's eyes instantly lit up and saw how excited she got. "Tyrell? Is that what you said? It must be that older one, Willas, right? Oh, honey, why didn't you tell us you met someone? It makes sense that it'd be a Tyrell. From what I hear they practically own that whole school."

_You've got to say it, Sansa. The guys have known since the beginning and even Arya's known since her visit. I'm actually quite surprised that all of Winterfell doesn't know by now._

"It's not Willas, mom. It's his sister, Margaery."

"Sansa, don't joke with us. If it's not Willas, then it's Garlan, right? I thought you'd said he had a girlfriend already."

"It's no joke, I'm very serious. Margaery was the first person I met down there and we've been inseparable since pretty much the first weekend. It just started out as friends and progressed from there. We've been going out for about three months now and gods, it's wonderful. You'd love her, you both would. She's super smart and focused, really driven and committed to her studies so she understands why they're so important to me, but I've never had someone that I could just chill with after class or on weekends that makes me feel like I don't have to hide and I can just relax." She realized she'd been on a tangent a bit and stopped for a moment, waiting to see any responses. Ned was calm as always and she could tell that at first he was not sure he understood correctly, but she noticed the small smile he was trying to hide from his wife.

"I can't believe this," Catelyn responded, breaking the moment of silence and also noticing the look on Ned's face. "What is that smirk for? Did you know about this Ned?"

"This is the first I've heard too, Cat. And yes, it is a bit surprising."

"A bit surprising? You act like you're okay with this. And you, young lady what do you have say for yourself?"

"What do I have to…? Mom, I think you're overreacting a bit. I'm sorry for waiting to tell you, but I wanted to do it in person. Dad didn't know, but Robb and the guys know, Arya does too. Everyone else really likes her – Arya even got along with her enough to spend half a day with her while I had class. I honestly don't see what the big deal is."

"I should've known. I should've known this would happen at a place like that. Ned, I can't believe we sent her to that public university. We could've saved for Maegors and this could all have been avoided," Cat said. She'd pushed herself up from her chair and was pacing back and forth around the kitchen.

"Cat, now, if you would just sit down for a –" Sansa knew her father's calm reasoning was not going to help at all in this situation. She'd seen her mother get angry at Arya before, she knew how this went.

"Really, mom? You think Highgarden is to blame? You don't think I would've been a lesbian if I'd attended Maegors, an all girls school? You think all I've been doing up at school has been thinking, 'Gods, you know what would piss off my mother? If I decided to date a girl! Wouldn't her daughter being a lesbian just be the perfect punishment for shipping me off to this public school?'"

"Gods, Sansa, don't say that word so loudly. What if the neighbors hear?"

"Mother, our closest neighbor is a half mile down the road. And what word are you talking about? Lesbian? Well, I'm sorry, but that's what I am. I apologize that your perfect daughter turned out this way, but I can guarantee you it wasn't caused by what school I went to or some girl's bad influence on me, or whatever you're thinking. This just happened. I'm sorry for not thinking about your feelings, or what the neighbors might think. I was just too busy being happy."

She'd tried to hold it together. She'd never gotten angry like this with her mother, never raised her voice to her before. Her mother had always been there for her, always accepted her, told her she was beautiful no matter what. When she was in eighth grade and Arya put three mouthfuls of gum on top of her head the day before school picture day and they had no choice but to buzz it all off. When she cried hysterically about how she'd never get into Maegors with a B+ in Algebra on her record. When she didn't know any better and got so upset when the Baratheon scandal hit and Joffrey was shipped off to the Westerlands. When she started off at Winterfell Schools on the wrong foot, not thinking and wearing her Mordane's uniform on the first day when everyone else, including her sister, had dressed in street clothes. When she'd come home from Winterfell upset because she'd never make friends, got made fun of for her fancier clothes she wore, for always raising her hand to answer questions, for being perceived as thinking she was better than all the other kids of working class families, when really she just wished she could let her guard down, forget the last ten years of prep school and finishing classes, and be carefree like they could. When her husky dog Lady, not even a year old, had ran out into the road, got hit by a car and was barely hanging on and her father had to rip her out of Sansa's arms to "take care of the situation."

The second she saw her mother carelessly sit herself back down in her chair and start crying, she couldn't hold it together any longer.

XXXXXX

"None of this matters, babe, not in the long run. She'll come around, I know it," Margaery said, pulling Sansa closer into her side and smoothing down her hair, trying her best to make Sansa realize that this was not the end of the world, just one hurdle for them.

"I'm just not used to not being accepted by her. Even if I felt like no one else was on my side, I knew that she would be. It's like starting at Winterfell High School all over again."

"It was just your mom that was upset, right? What about Ned?"

"He's fine. A little caught off guard but we talked about it for a while afterwards."

XXXXXX

Once Sansa had started crying she immediately got up from her spot at the table, grabbed her coat and shoes, and ran outside to the only place she could think of. She'd been sitting on the leaf-covered ground in the Godswood outside their house, in the very back by the largest weirwood tree and pond that Arya and her brothers used to swim in during the summer. It was about an hour before she heard the sound of footsteps and then saw her father walking towards her.

"Are you going to cry too? Or would you rather yell at me?"

"I'm not upset at you, Sansa, just surprised, that's all."

"You're not? But mom, she..."

"Your mother overreacted. She's just shocked. I don't think she meant all those things she said. Heck, like I said, you took me by surprise too. But, so far as I'm concerned, you're old enough to make your own decisions. Not only that, I just spent forty-five minutes on the phone with Robb, Jon, and Arya listening to them gab about how happy you've been these past months. You're beautiful, you're smart, and you've got such a sweet and caring personality. Anybody you choose to love would be stupid not to love you just as much as I do."

"You mean it?"

"Would I lie to you?" Ned asked. Sansa shook her head. "That's right. Now, we're going to have to meet this girl pretty soon though. I'm actually looking forward to it."

She leaned over and wrapped her arms around him, starting to cry again, but happily this time. She'd never really come to her father for comfort, at least not since she was very little. That wasn't to say he was not supportive of her, it was just always her mother who she ran to, and Arya that ran to their father when things went wrong. It felt amazing to know that he was on her side through this.

They sat there for a little while longer, not saying anything. Finally, he asked if she thought she was ready to head back and helped her off the ground.

"Now, tell me about this Gendry fellow," Ned asked once they started the walk from the back of the godswood.

"What's there to know? He's just one of the guys' friends. Really nice though, seems like he's got it all planned out. Why are you asking?"

"Just a feeling, kiddo. Ever since Arya spent that week visiting you on her break, all I her about is Gendry Waters this, and Gendry Waters that, did you know that Gendry has his mechanic's license. It never stops. Your mother thinks something's going on, but I don't know what to think. Arya's never shown any interest in any of the local boys that way before. I thought I'd be getting today's confession from her eventually, not from you."

"Dad!" She yelled and then let out a loud laugh. "You better watch out or I'll tell her you said that. Arya did spend a day or two hanging out with him while the rest of us had classes. No clue what they did, but I don't think any of us noticed it."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. She's probably just got a crush on him. He seems her type – dark and broody, leather jackets and old motorcycles, always sorta smells greasy."

"Good guy?" He asked, looking her in the eyes as he did so. He'd always told her and all of her siblings that he had a sixth sense for lies and half-truths.

"Great guy, actually," Sansa answered, meeting his gaze and wrapping her arm in his as they walked back. "Hey, dad, I don't know if I'm up for family dinner tonight with mom. Is it okay if just you and I grab something?"

"Of course, whatever you think you need."

XXXXX

"Doesn't sound like it ended that badly. Why'd you end up coming back early?"

Sansa had stopped crying for a moment and shifted herself out of Margaery's arms, sitting up straight with her legs crossed in front of her. "Dad and I grabbed dinner but it wasn't until the drive home when I realized that I was still going to have to spend the next five days or whatever in the same house with my mother. Jeyne was working, Arya was at school, so it'd be just me and mom the majority of each day. I couldn't do it. At that point I was just so tired of yelling and crying that I told Dad what I wanted to do, called Jeyne as soon as I got home, grabbed my bags, and she swung by and dropped me at the train station. I got back here and even though I know that Robb and Jon and Theon are all on my side I was scared."

"What? What's there to be scared of?"

"Everything. I just had a lot of time to think on the train, that's all, and I realized that my mother's reaction and opinions are not going to be the last. There'll be reactions like hers all of the time, or maybe just the silent ones. I don't know which are worse, and I certainly don't know if I'm strong enough for something that seems so difficult."

"Sweet summer child," Margaery said, scooting herself directly in front of Sansa, crossing her legs, and leaning up to kiss her forehead. "It is difficult, but it's worth it. There are plenty of people in my family that aren't cool with you, that weren't cool with any of my previous girlfriends, or with Loras and Renly. There's plenty of people out there that you'll meet who will judge you immediately and there are obnoxious people that will yell horrible things at us when we hold hands in public."

"I know!" she yelled, flinging out her arms in disapproval and letting them drop back down into her lap. "I don't know how you've dealt with it. I don't know if I'm brave enough for that, for everything they'll think or say."

"Hey, don't talk like that," Margaery replied as she lifted Sansa face up so she could meet her eyes. "Look at me. I don't care what they think. I don't care what they say. What do they know about this love, anyways?"

Sansa's expression softened as she looked at Margaery for a few moments, and then a slow grin broke out on her face as Margaery lowered her hands.

"…did you just quote Melissa Etheridge to me?" Sansa asked.

"Maybe."

"Maybe nothing," she replied, letting herself laugh a bit. "You totally did."

"Okay, okay, I did, but that doesn't mean it's not true. They don't know shit about our relationship, Sansa, about what we've got, or what we're working on building here. We're in this together, yea?" Margaery said.

"Yea," Sansa replied softly, nodding.

"Of course. Now, ready to come out of your room for a while?" She pushed herself up and off the bed, holding her arms out in front of her towards Sansa.

"Are you kidding? I could kill for some real food right now." She grabbed Margaery's hands and stood up off the bed, using the momentum to push herself towards Margaery and kiss her properly before walking over to her closet. "I've been living off nothing but leftovers and Diet Coke for two days." She grabbed a thick green Highgarden hooded sweatshirt off a hanger and quickly pulled it over her head.

"And that's different from every other day?"

Margaery avoided the push from Sansa and unlocked her door, pushing it open, its normal creaking noise sounding extra loud. "Come on, let's go. Whatever you want at the diner, my treat."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was initially going to write this in order, but I've decided against it. The whole story will get told, but not in the exact timeline. The chapter title and a bit of theme is from Melissa Etheridge's Come to My Window, which was released in 1994. I knew I couldn't tell this story without this chapter and I thought this song was great for it.


	4. Today is the Greatest Day I've Ever Known

**Chapter 4: Today is the Greatest Day I've Ever Known**

**Beginning of September, 1993.**

 

“Loras, quite honestly I’m shocked you’d think I had anything other than chaste intentions with Sansa,” Margaery chided, sitting on the stairs and tying the shoelaces on her black ankle length boots. Loras was sitting a few steps above her, still clad in his pajamas and looking like he was headed back to bed as soon as she left. It was just before seven on Saturday morning, the sun not even completely up in the sky, and she had told Sansa Stark that she’d give her the grand tour of the Reach that day, even going so far as to promise her that she’d love it. _Maybe that was a bit of an overstep… but what’s not to like about it here? Especially after living in the land of always winter for eighteen years._

 

“Really, Maggy? Come on, now. You spent all of this past week on the phone with grandmother talking about where to visit, you’ve even got a picnic basket packed and ready to go in the trunk of your car. I saw you put it in there not ten minutes ago from my window upstairs. Plus, I know you've been up for two hours making yourself pretty for that girl. Seems like the perfect date, if you ask me.”

 

“Well, no one asked you.” She sighed. “Fine, I’ll admit that I guess I like her… okay, I definitely like her, but, I mean, come on. Have you seen her? Have you _seen_ her legs?”

 

“Not exactly the type of legs I’m into, but yes, they are rather… long?” Loras answered awkwardly.

 

She looked over and her brother with an annoyed sigh, turning around slightly to poke him in the arm. “That was rhetorical and you knew it. Seriously though, I’ve got no clue about if she’s into me, or if she’s even into girls for that matter. It’s not something she’d just announce, ya know?”

 

“Exactly. You’ve got no idea. I’ve seen you do this before and I don’t want you to get all head over heels only to sit up in your room crying for days once she rebuffs your advances and you find out she doesn’t play for your team.”

 

“I won’t,” she stated confidently. She stood up and gave her brother a quick kiss on top of his curly brown mop of hair. “I promise. I’m going into this as friends. Now, I’ve got to run next door to get her."

 

"Alright. Have fun. I'm heading back to bed. Too damn early for a Saturday."

 

Closing the door behind her, Margaery walked across the lawn to Sansa's house, knocking on the door instead of ringing the bell, remembering how Loras had said it was 'too damn early for a Saturday.' She stood on the porch, fidgeting with the slouchy fabric shoulder bag that she had slung over the left shoulder, waiting for the door to open and listening to the sounds her stomach was making.

 

_There's no way I'm hungry_ , she thought. _It's gotta be nerves... ugh, for real, Mags? This is not a date, this is not a date, this is not a --_

 

"Hey! Margaery, you ready?" She was startled out of her inner pep talk when Sansa came up from behind her. "You okay? Sorry if I snuck up on you. The guys had a bunch of people over last night and some of their friends are asleep on the couches so I came out the door on the side."

 

Margaery turned around from the porch to face Sansa and felt her stomach clench in the realization that she would probably need to have her 'this is not a date' mantra on repeat in her mind for the rest of the day. For someone just dressed in casual clothes, Sansa looked amazing. Her long auburn hair was brushed out and worn straight down, she wore a slightly oversized forest green Highgarden University t-shirt, tied up on the side with a t-shirt clip, which was doing its best to show off a small sliver of tummy, but also contrast amazingly with her red hair, light washed denim jeans showed off the long legs that Margaery found herself jealous of, simple grey canvas Keds, and her seemingly signature pink backpack over her shoulder.

 

"Umm, no, I'm fine. Just startled me a bit," she said, finding herself struggling for words, which was not normal for her. No matter how pretty the girl was, Margaery normally never had any problem with nervousness, but somehow this was different. She wasn't sure if this was because it was honestly just starting out as friends or that she had no clue where this relationship would go and was pretty scared of blowing her chances before she even really had them. _Just be normal_ , Mags, she told herself. _You're taking her around Highgarden and the Reach. You know this place like the back of your hand._

 

"Ready, then?" Margaery finally asked as she walked down the Stark's porch. Sansa nodded. "Awesome. Sorry about such an early hour, the Reach is bigger than most people think so I thought we could get an early start and I could spend all day all playing tour guide."

 

"It's really no problem," Sansa answered, following beside Margaery and then stopping in her tracks when she saw the car they were walking towards, a cherry red Mercedes coupe convertible. "Holy cow, Mags, is that yours?"

 

Margaery could feel her eyes on her as she walked over to the passenger side door and unlocking it for Sansa before walking around to the driver side. "Yep, all mine," she answered, patting the side of the car and placing her shoulder bag on the floor beside Sansa's backpack. "Bit of hand-me-down from my oldest brother Garlan. I think I told you about him, yea? When he found out his wife was pregnant he decided this car was too impractical. He said he loved this car almost as much as he knew he'd love the baby so he couldn't bear to sell it away to some stranger replying to a newspaper ad, so now it's mine."

 

"It's amazing," Sansa replied, running her hands along the light tan leather seats. "With all the rain and snow up north you could never get away with this."

 

"See? Just one more reason why I know you'll love Highgarden," Margaery answered, looking over and wondering what she could've possibly done correctly so far in life to have this beautiful girl next to her for the whole day. _You're flirting with her_ , she thought. _You should probably stop that_. She took the parking brake off and smoothly moved away from the curb, heading down their street.

 

"Alright, so what should I be prepared for on my grand tour of the Reach?" Sansa had grabbed a hair tie out of her backpack and was busying herself by braiding her long hair back so it wouldn't get tangled in the wind.

 

"Everything you could want," Margaery answered. "Rolling hills and pristine farmland on the Roseroad from here until Oldtown, a history lesson at the Citadel, vineyards at the Arbor, the Sunset Sea. All you've got to do is sit back and enjoy. I've heard I'm quite the bitchin' tour guide," she said, looking over to catch Sansa laugh.

 

"Bitchin'?"

 

"Yea. We do have surfers here, ya know? Besides, it's not nice to make fun of your tour guide." Sansa laughed again and watched Margaery lean across her and pop open the glove box. "Here, we've got about two hours until Oldtown and your official tour guide job is to be our DJ. Think you can handle it?"

 

Sansa made a little salute with her right hand and grabbed out a handful of cassettes as Margaery merged onto the highway, shifting from third to fourth to fifth and speeding off southwest towards Oldtown.

 

The drive towards Oldtown led through what Margaery easily considered the heart of the Reach. Leaving the outskirts of Highgarden, where the university was located, it followed the Mander River for a bit before heading further south towards rolling fields and rich farmland as far as the eye could see. It might have been the beginning of September, but harvest in the Reach was still a good two months' out. Once they passed the exit for Honeyholt, a little over the halfway point, the fields started to thin out and were gradually taken over by fruit orchards, some apples and pears but mostly peaches, apricots, and different varieties of citrus fruits bred to fare better in that area, as opposed to Dorne.

 

They made their way through the orchard areas faster than she'd expected, arriving at the place where the Honeywine River met up with the Roseroad and led down towards the valley where Oldtown sat on the banks of the Whispering Sound, Margaery watched as Sansa's eyes grew wide and the smile crept on her face when she first saw Oldtown in the distance. She couldn't help but smile to herself, remembering back to the first time she'd come up over that crest and seen the city as a child. _It is a pretty spectacular sight, especially if the type of city you're used to is a concrete jungle like Kings Landing._ From there you could see the how the Honeywine lazily wound its way down and into the waters of Honeywine Sound, the gradual build up of residential areas that led up to downtown, and the Hightower in the distance was easy to spot as well. The large centuries old lighthouse that rose up from the bay was still functioning and it was on Margaery's list of spots to visit. On a clear day, which they were lucky to have, you could easily see further out in the sound, to the bedroom community of Blackcrown, the more trendy Three Towers marina district, and usually all the way to The Arbor.

 

The idea that Margaery had in her head, the idea that she could successfully keep Sansa in the "just friends" compartment in her mind, was quickly getting thrown out the window the way she talked about her life back north, the way she relaxed and stopped worrying so much, the way she laid back against the seat of the Mercedes, allowing her hastily plaited braid to get even more messy, holding her right hand out to sway in the wind and absentmindedly drawing circles on the leather seats with her left hand as she pointed out everything new to her. It was taking all of Margaery's willpower not to grab her hand and never let go.

 

"If all of the Reach is as stunning as the view coming into the city, I think you're definitely right, Mags. I will love it here," Sansa said, grabbing her backpack and handing Margaery her bag. They had parked the car in an underground garage downtown, not far from most of the places that were on Margaery's list. "Where to from here?"

 

She listed off the places they'd go, watching Sansa smile and nod in approval at each one. The Citadel was first. Formerly a center of study and headquarters for the order of Maesters, it was now used similarly as center for medical and scientific research as well as serving as the archive for the ancient texts used by the Maesters, being home to the largest library in Westeros, and housing an impressive collection of suits of armor and sculpture from Westeros and across the Narrow Sea. She watched Sansa as they made their way into the large building, taking her time walking around the Seneschal's Court, thoughtfully snapping pictures and stopping to read each information sign she walked by, not moving past until she had seemed to absorb all that she could learn. It wasn't just following Sansa around, she enjoyed telling stories of her field trips here as a child, watching Sansa cover her face to muffle her laughs when she talked about getting yelled at by security for hopping the ropes and hiding in the writing stalls in the Scribe's Hearth when she was eight. They rounded the corner and entered into the armor and sculpture hall, where Sansa convinced Margaery that they should pose next to the interesting statues, imitating the poses they were in and proceeded to ask the other visitors to take their pictures for them.

 

After working their way through the areas of the Citadel that were open to tourists, they took the street car from the Citadel stop down to the waterfront district to a small outdoor cafe that was owned by one of Margaery's relatives on her mother's Hightower side. Sitting along the waterside, they joked about the looks they got from the other tourists in the sculpture hall, half disapproving and half wishing they were young enough to get away with the same idea.

 

After lunch they walked the short distance down to the ferry docks, bought tickets for the next departure and only had to wait about ten minutes before the next ferry to the Arbor left. If you could ask Margaery when she finally decided that Sansa was someone she needed in her life, she'd tell you it was this day, after lunch, on the ferry between Oldtown and the Arbor, particularly when she finally started to open up about herself. The conversations at the party the week prior were one thing, mostly just venting about her current headaches and small talk, but it was when she finally started to open up about her interests and what she thought she wanted out of life, all while sitting on the outside edge of the ferry and trying to keep the spray from the wake out of her hair, was when Margaery decided she'd really need to hang on to this.

 

She had been raised to be a lady, to be dressed appropriately, arrive on time, and have enough knowledge to carry on a polite conversation about whatever topic her partner wished. She could set a table perfectly for a seven course dinner, recite old Valyrian poetry, perform a Myrish tea ceremony, and name all of the kings of Westeros from the time of Aegon the Conqueror _and_ she could do it in order.

 

There was more though, Margaery quickly learned. Contradictions to the personality she normally showed. She'd roll her eyes, blushing and laughing when Margaery would say something inappropriate or make an off-color joke, but she was just as quick-witted and clever, often letting her own jokes slip out or making a sarcastic comment without noticing it. She'd mentioned her younger sister Arya when Margaery asked where that habit came from, saying that she'd learned from the master of snark.

 

Margaery expected her to love Baywatch, Saved by the Bell, and wear out the tape on her Mariah Carey cassettes from listening to 'Dreamlover' on repeat, but instead she was more than happy to be spending her day with the Sansa Stark whose poker face would win each hand of five-card draw, who would gladly spend all day listening grungy garage rock with her half-brother Jon, and seemed to know everything there was to know, interesting or otherwise, about the intricacies and intrigue of Westerosi politics. She was the type of girl you looked at and made quick decisions about, pegging her for cheer captain and aspiring to be a veterinarian for horses, instead she was telling Margaery she was thinking of putting her years of ice-skating on frozen ponds to good use by joining the intramural ice hockey team and had finally decided to go into journalism.

 

Sansa Stark was an exercise in judging a book by its cover and then proceeding to get surprised by every page you turned.

 

After about forty-five minutes, the ferry docked at the marina in the Arbor, banging unceremoniously against the dock. They walked from their spot on the port side to the back of the ferry, showing their tickets once again to the employee, and trying to walk straight on the ramp as it swayed.

 

"When'd you grab that basket?" Sansa asked, looking down at the picnic basket in Margaery's hand as they walked away from the docks. "Please tell me that I'm not going crazy and that you weren't carrying that around all day."

 

“No, no,” Margaery answered. “You're not crazy. I grabbed it from the car when you were in the bathroom at the cafe. What kind of host would I be if I subjected you to the overpriced food they serve at every restaurant in the Arbor? I packed us a picnic for dinner... I hope that's okay with you.”

 

“You really didn't need do to that. I'm sure the winery restaurants are all super expensive but I bet we could find something. You already planned this whole trip so it's a lot of trouble to go to.”

 

“It's nothing, Sansa, really. I wanted to bring this for us, so I did,” she said, watching as Sansa continued her walk on the sidewalk, not noticing that she'd stopped walking at a small cobblestone pathway leading up and away from the main road.

 

“Hey!” She yelled, quickly closing the couple of paces that Sansa was ahead of her, thinking something in her head about her long legs giving her that advantage. "This way, Stark." She grabbed her by the crook of her elbow and guided her back towards the cobblestone path that led away from the street. The area surrounding the small marina was touristy, but not to the point of being cheesy or inauthentic. The small street Margaery led them up was quieter than the street that followed the curve of the shore and lined with various shops. She watched as Sansa's neck turned to look in the windows of almost every shop they passed, particularly the pastry shop and a brightly colored used book store, then stopped to watch two young men in a glass blowing shop, both who noticed the two girls that became their audience, blushing a bit and waving at them. They watched for a few minutes until the large molten blob transformed from nothing into a large serving plate, clapping when they completed their work.

 

It wasn't until they finished their walk up the path that Sansa turned to Margaery to ask about the lack of cars.

 

"I was wondering when you'd ask that," Margaery replied. "I don't know how long it's been since they banned cars in the Arbor, maybe they've never had them. Something about preserving the history, I think. Only the wineries have them for delivering to the larger marina on the south end of the island. It's a little gimmicky I guess, but I kinda dig it. We can rent a moped though, if you like, those are allowed."

 

Sansa nodded, listening to the explanation. "It's fine. I like walking. I don't think I trust myself to ride a scooter down these hills anyways."

 

Margaery laughed. "Funny you should mention that..." she started, going into a grand story of fifteen year old Margaery and seventeen year old Loras' Arbor moped adventures, leaving Sansa clutching her sides and wiping tears from her eyes by the time the story was done.

 

The story distracted them both from the walk, and Margaery soon announced they'd arrived at the winery, an ancient looking wood and stone building with thick leaded windows and green vines crawling on the front walls, and two oil lanterns flanking the open front door. After being greeted by a cheerful middle-aged man, dressed in khakis, a black polo with the logo embroidered on the chest, along with a white apron stained with dark red smears, Margaery confirmed their tour reservation and they were led through the shop to the back and outside again. An open top carriage with a large horse in front and a new man, wearing denim overalls and a baseball cap, sitting in the front seat holding the reins greeted them. It wasn't anything particularly fancy, not like a fairy tale carriage, this one was clearly used for farming.

 

"Really, Mags? A horse and carriage?"

 

"No cars, remember? I got us set up for the full tour, and that starts with the vineyard, and apparently this is how we get there."

 

The tour guide stepped down from his seat to help both girls up and into the carriage before he set the horse off trotting towards the fields. As they went, he gave the history of the winery, from its start hundreds of years prior, to how little the processes have changed and everything in between, the way the grapes are grown and tended to, how the soil pH affects the plants, and they boasted of what they thought was the prime location for their fields in all of the Arbor. After walking the fields with the guide, Sansa still carefully snapping pictures away, she pulled her backpack off and began searching.

 

"I know it's in here somewhere..." she muttered, rifling to the bottom of the bag. "Hah, gotcha!" She pulled out a Polaroid camera from its case and called out to the guide, asking him to take their picture.

 

Margaery felt Sansa nestle up to her side, using the rows of grapes as the backdrop and almost on instinct she wrapped her left hand around Sansa's waist, taking any chance to feel her that close. _It's just for the picture. We need to both fit in the frame. Yes, that's right._

 

She looked up at Sansa, who smiled, putting her arm over the shorter girl's shoulder then looking forward, as Margaery did the same, big smiles as the camera snapped and spit the picture out of the slot in the front.

 

Just like that, the moment was over, Sansa thanked their guide, and they all climbed back into the carriage to begin the ride back to the main building and onto the next part of the tour.

 

"Here," Sansa said, holding out the now developed picture, "You can have this one."

 

"You sure? You're in it too."

 

"I've got more film, at least three or four more. You take this one, it came out really good."

 

Margaery thanked her, taking the picture and looking down at it, glad to have a tangible reminder of the moment, as if she could forget it. Her eyes quickly scanned the picture, stopping on the part of her hand on Sansa's waist and her bright eyes, the genuine smile showing how excited she was.

 

_We do look ridiculously happy_ , she thought. _I'm glad she's enjoying this. I can't believe I was able to set up this tour in less than a week. Then again, they practically bent over backwards when they heard my last name. That'll never get old, but gods if it's not weird._

 

She looked over at Sansa, turned in the seat looking out over the side to watch all the scenery as it passed by slowly, like she was committing it all to memory. _She probably is. I hope I'm part of that_ , she found herself thinking, but chided herself almost instantly because of it. _She's given you no real clues that she's into you, Mags, you're just letting your mind play tricks on you. Yea, she's friendly and a bit touchy, but some people are just like that, so chill out._

 

Once they arrived back at the main building, an older lady met them and started the second part of the tour, taking them through the wine-making process, explaining how it's been changed by technology, how it's stayed the same, and taking them down into the wine cellars, uncorking some of the barrels to let them tell the difference the aging process made. Normally, the personal tour included the standard wine tasting and dinner, which Margaery declined, choosing instead to purchase a couple regular-sized bottles and a special sampler pack to do their own tasting with the picnic she had brought.

 

After leaving the winery and starting back down another narrow path towards the town area again, it was already starting to a bit dark. They agreed to set up their picnic on the stone tables and benches that were out in the town square, especially after the loud noises from Sansa's stomach decided to interrupt the comfortable silence of their walk. The square was busy for a Saturday evening, but Margaery spotted an older couple leaving a table in the back under one of the street lamps, pointing it out to Sansa, who took it upon herself to run ahead through the square to claim the table, leaving Margaery to catch up, shaking her head and smiling at her energy, or maybe just her eagerness to break into the basket Margaery held.

 

"Excited much?" Margaery asked when she joined Sansa at the table, starting to pull out their dinner.

 

"Starving," she replied quickly. "Learning about grapes really makes me hungry apparently."

 

"Well, good thing I packed plenty of food. I'd hate to have to answer to Robb about starving out his little sister." She grinned widely at her, winking quickly as she began to unpack crackers and cookies, then cheeses and a large salad full of greens still in season in the Reach, strawberries, and orange sections from a special cold case.

 

They took their time with dinner, splitting the miniature sampler wine bottles, and watching the various performing artists that Margaery remembered always gathered in the square to entertain the tourists. At one point in the evening, an old man in a bright red shirt with black, white striped pants, and a thick Pentoshi accent, who had been previously blowing intricate balloon animals for a large group of children, made his way over to where the two of them were sitting, asking if them what they would like.

 

"Oh, no, no, sir. We'd don't need any," Sansa refused politely.

 

"Come on, Sansa! Where's the fun in that?" Margaery said, taking a sip from one of the sampler bottles and nudging her with her elbow.

 

"Exactly!" The man said happily. "Tell you what, I'll make both of you something for free, how's that?"

 

Margaery nodded excitedly, smiling at Sansa as the man got to work, standing in front of both of them preparing what turned out to be a yellow balloon crown for Margaery and a navy blue ring with large light blue flowers on it for Sansa.

 

"See? Look how pretty the two of you look!" He said when he handed over the finished work and they both put them on. "You don't have a camera, do you? It'd be a shame not to have lasting proof of these."

 

"We do!" Margaery exclaimed. "Sansa, get the Polaroid out! The regular one, too, just in case it's too dark here." Sansa grabbed her backpack off the bench next to her and took out both cameras, handing them to the balloon man's waiting hands. He snapped the pictures using both cameras, accepted the girls' thanks and moved over to the next group of people.

 

Margaery shook the Polaroid as Sansa put back the cameras, then they both started to pack up the picnic basket. Margaery got out the pamphlet for the ferry to check the times, then walked around window shopping for another half hour or so before they needed to make their way back to the marina. Despite the coolness from the night air and the wind from being out on the water, they pulled sweaters out from their bags and sat on the top deck, watching the lights from the Arbor fade as the much brighter lights from the tall skyscrapers in Three Towers first came into view and then the lights from Oldtown and the Hightower shortly thereafter, lighting up the water on the bay and casting upside down versions of all of the buildings.

 

Once the ferry docked, Margaery announced that there was one more stop for them to make before they should probably head back. Fossoway's - a specialty late-night pie bakery, specializing in pies made from whatever fruits, and sometimes vegetables, that were in-season in the Reach at the time. The owners were long time family friends of the Tyrells and were originally known throughout the area for their large apple orchards before opening up the pie shop in Oldtown. They ordered a slice of apple and one of peach, both hot, as well as two extra large coffees in to-go cups, hoping they would help keep them awake on the long ride home.

 

Leaving once they were finished, they walked the short distance back to the car and Sansa watched as Margaery closed the roof on the convertible. Once just outside the city limits, they ran into a large amount of construction traffic, the only wrench that the Reach put into their plans. Margaery tried to stay on the Roseroad for a few miles, quickly becoming frustrated and decided reluctantly to leave the highway.

 

"I've got good news and bad news," she started. "Good news is that it looks like they're not repaving the old highway."

 

"... and the bad news?"

 

"Bad news is it doesn't go straight, stops at every little farm town from here to Highgarden, and it'll add a ton of time to our drive. Probably won't get home until closer to four in the morning."

 

Sansa shrugged her shoulders as if to say that there wasn't much they could do about it, since there wasn't, and picked up Margaery's coffee out of the holder, offering it out to her. She laughed and turned off the highway, starting the even longer ride home.

 

They were somewhere past Brightwater Keep, finally able to get back on the main highway when she heard the whir from the stereo rewinding the latest cassette they finished listening to. Pushing the eject button, Margaery passed the tape over to Sansa who quickly put it back in its case and returned it to the glove box.

 

"So what's up next, Miss DJ?"

 

"Not sure. You're in luck though, it just so happens that 3am starts my all request hour. What'll it be, Tyrell?" Sansa asked, turning on her best radio host impersonation and pulling a bunch of cassettes out of the glove box. "Essos' new pop sensation Ace of Base? That Storms' End grunge sound with Nirvana's In Utero? Or maybe we'll start off old school with the Beastie Boys?" She looked over at Margaery, holding up the License to Ill tape in her hand.

 

"I'm not really feeling any of those to end out a day like this..." she answered, her voice trailing off as she quickly moved into the next lane, passing a slower moving van.

 

"Something else in mind?"

 

She sat silent for a moment before answering. "Yea, I do. My bag still on the floor?" Sansa nodded, picking it up. "There's a cassette in there somewhere."

 

Sansa fished around and finally pulled out the single tape, still with the plastic wrap around it, then flipped it over to read it as the street lights lining the highway illuminated the car every few seconds.

 

"Smashing Pumpkins?" Sansa asked, unsure of herself. "Are they new?"

 

"Yea, that's just released. I have their last album too but it wasn't that popular. Go ahead, put it on. I haven't even listened to it yet."

 

She heard the crinkling of the plastic wrap and then Sansa put in the tape and pressed play. Sansa recognized the first song from the radio, singing along with too much enthusiasm for the late hour.

 

It's during the third song, Today, when Margaery is pulled out of her thoughts. The chorus starts for the second time and she nearly jumps out of her seat when she feels Sansa's hand on top of her, resting on the gear shift, partially out of surprise, but mostly out of some awkward sort of hope.

 

"Sorry," Sansa says a few seconds later, probably after feeling Margaery jump a bit. "It's just, I think we found our road trip theme music."

 

"Yea," Margaery replied, listening to the lyrics. "...the greatest day of them all..." she said afterwards. Sansa took her hand away as Margaery went to down shift and pass a slow station wagon in front of them, knowing it was only about forty minutes left before they'd arrive in Highgarden.

 

After saying their goodnights on the sidewalk and Sansa thanking her profusely, Margaery waited on the easement until she heard the front door of the Stark house click locked and started to gather up the stuff from the trunk, walking inside with the picnic basket. She was no more than a foot inside the door when she heard Genna, another co-op resident call her from down the front hall. Genna always kept her schedule the opposite of what most would prefer, the majority of the week she spent pulling the night shift in the library archives.

 

"Mags! Come on, phone for you!"

 

Margaery set the picnic basket down on the floor and walked towards where Genna was standing at the end of the long hallway, right before the kitchen.

 

"Who is it?"

 

"Hell if I know. Do know it's almost four in the morning though." She watched the short girl narrow her eyes at Margaery, holding the phone out to her, as if she had something really important to do at four in the morning that was currently put on hold because of the phone call.

 

"Oh, shut up, princess. Not like you were sleeping anyways," Margaery replied and grabbed the phone receiver out of Genna's hand, watching her roll her eyes and walk past her, pulling her black hair up into a high ponytail. "This is Margaery..." she continued, sighing into the phone and sitting down on the wooden bench in the hallway.

 

"Mags, it's just me, Sansa."

 

_Well now, this is unexpected._

 

"Long time, no talk, stranger." She heard her stifled giggle on the other end. "What's up? Forget something in the car?"

 

"No, it's just... I thought this day couldn't get any better, but I got up the stairs to my room and Robb had left a note on my door saying that the coffee shop called and.... they want me in for training tomorrow. I guess that's today, actually, but whatever... I got it! I can't believe it, really I can't, Mags," she said, finally pausing to catch her breath before continuing on, calmer and a bit softer. "I was so pumped to see that note and I guess I really wanted you to know. I couldn't wait until later."

 

Margaery shifted on the bench, pulling her feet up, and felt herself smiling, despite having no one around to notice. "Sansa, that's frickin' awesome! You'll have to come over after work tomorrow and tell me how it went... now you need to get to sleep so you don't pass out behind the counter."

 

"You get to sleep too," Sansa countered. "You did drive the whole way today."

 

"Well, that's only because someone, I'm not gonna say who, but someone can't drive stick."

 

"Yea, yea, I know. You'll just have to teach me, now won't you?"

 

"It'd be my pleasure," Margaery replied, happy for any excuse to hang out with her. "Now get to bed. No more stalling. I'll talk to you later today."

 

They said their goodnights for a second time and Margaery headed back outside to finished unpacking the car. Pressing ejects, she grabbed the cassette from radio, and brought the last of the stuff back into the house. After dropping the picnic basket in the kitchen, she made her way up the flight of stairs leading to her second floor room. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she cracked open a bottle of wine she'd bought from the winery, and pushed the cassette into the stereo beside her bed, putting on a large pair of headphones and fast forwarding the tape to get to the song she wanted. She looked up at the board beside her bed, full of push pins holding back her class schedule, some postcards, and a few reminders, she opened her bag and took out the Polaroid from the vineyard, looking at it a second before sticking it on the board, laying back against her pillows, eyes closes, listening to Sansa's self-proclaimed theme music of the day.

 

A few months later, they'd watch an interview with Billy Corgan about his depression and the meaning behind the song, but they both still agreed to let it remind them of their road trip across the Reach.


	5. You Can Never Be Lonely

**Chapter 5: You Can Never Be Lonely (late November, 1993)**

It was just before 9:30pm on a Friday night. Sansa was sprawled out on the couch in the living room, covered in blankets to ward off the chill that was finally coming to Highgarden, and making her way through a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream when she heard the front door open. _Shit. I specifically planned this out so I could just have one night to myself_ , she thought when she heard Theon's voice call from the door.

“Anyone here?”

“Just me.”

He dropped his shoes off at the door and threw his backpack carelessly into the reclining chair next to the couch, then leaned against the half wall which divided the living room from the foyer. She grabbed the remote from the side table and paused the movie when she saw him standing there watching her. Sansa could read Theon Greyjoy like a drugstore paperback she'd paged through a hundred times. She could tell he was trying to figure out what was going on. It wasn't like her to be home on a Friday night at this hour, especially since she'd started to hang out with Margaery a couple nights a week and most weekend nights, either out with her friends or at the Stark house, just depending on where everyone was gathering. Sansa was initially hesitant at first, but after a couple movie nights at the Stark house both groups seemed to mesh together rather well.

“Didn't expect to see you here on a Friday night.”

“Well, here I am,” Sansa answered, looking away from the TV over to Theon and taking another spoonful of ice cream from the carton.

“Is Margaery sick or something?”

“No, she’s not sick. She asked if I wanted to go out dancing with her and some housemates, but I said I was busy.”

_Okay, I've answered you, now please go somewhere else. I'd really just like to sit here and wait for Bette Midler to make cry sob more._

“What?” He asked, sitting down on the couch and clearly not listening to her inner pleas to leave. “You love dancing! Why the hell'd you do that?”

Sansa let out a large sigh, set the ice cream carton down on the side table and pulled the blanket up further towards her neck. “Because," she started, but an annoyed emphasis on the word, "I'm busy.”

“Busy? You're hiding under a blanket with a pint of ice cream, watching Beaches, and sobbing. Don't think I can't figure this out, I've seen this all before. Now, you're gonna tell me what's makin' ya eat your feelings and then we're gonna fix it,” he said, pulling both legs up on the couch before scooting closer to her and stealing some of the blanket.

“You're not gonna leave me alone until I spill it, are you?”

“Nope,” Theon replied, shaking his head. “Come on, Red, you can trust me.”

She knew she could. Everyone else would tell her that they wouldn't trust Theon Greyjoy farther than they could throw a truck, but he'd been there for her time and time again in the past. Sure, she was closer to her mom and Robb, but some things were better discussed with someone not related to you.

“I still haven't told anyone about when your friends made fun of you for never being kissed and you came to me, practically begging to help you out,” he continued.

“I most certainly did not beg,” Sansa said, and made as if she was going to steal the blanket fully back.

“Whatever. Still didn't tell anyone, did I?”

She smiled. “No, you didn't. And I'm glad it was you, not Joffrey.”

“So, then, what's wrong with you and Margaery?”

“How can you just assume the problem is between Margaery and me?” she asked, turning to sit back against the arm of the couch and noticing the knowing look on his face. “Okay, fine, you're right. It's just that, I think it finally hit me how far gone I am. I don't think I've ever met someone I like as much as her. At first it was just great to have a friend, ya know, but now, I don't know why, but it hurts to even be around her. I can't be just friends with her anymore.”

“Why don't you just tell her?"

"I can't, Theon. I wish it was that simple, but it's not. She's always talking about how happy she is now that we're practically best friends. She even asked me to spend winter break with her in Highgarden, and gods, I couldn't help it, I said yes."

"You know," Theon started slowly, "Sometimes it actually is that simple. She could feel the same way about you, even if she is saying all that 'best friends' crap. I know she seems like she’s got herself all together, but she could be just as worried as you and what she’s saying is just a load of bullshit to protect herself."

"I guess, but what if she isn’t secretly pining away over me, huh? You know what happens then right, Theon? Jorelle Mormont situation all over again," Sansa said, holding her head between her hands and staring into the blanket covering her lap.

That was another one of the stories that Sansa had entrusted Theon with. She'd had such a hard time making friends when she started classes at Winterfell after leaving Mordane's, but the first group she tried to reach out to was the group of Mormont sisters. There was practically one in every grade it seemed. Arya had made quick friends with Lyanna Mormont, finding out that the young girl who matched her own wild and outspoken personality had parents who were old friends of the Starks and had named her after their own Aunt Lyanna. For Sansa, it had been all about Lyanna's next older sister Jorelle, the first girl she thought was actually reciprocating her feelings.

While she'd been at school at Mordane's there had been plenty of whatever normal experimenting that happened when there were no boys around and the girls were sort of left to themselves. Sansa had went to enough sleepovers and parties but never felt the pull to mess around as much as some of the other girls did. _Jeyne would_ , she remembered. _Gods, the detail that girl would go into, only to finish every sentence affirming that it was just messing around, she didn't actually like girls, she just wanted to know what to do when she got a boyfriend, and “hey, by the way, you think that Theon guy your brothers are friends with might like me enough to… well… you know…?” I knew myself better at least. Knew better than to fool myself and say I wouldn't fall head over heels for some prep school girl that was just curious_. She had found herself dating Joffrey because he'd been nice to her at first, her parents approved of him and his family, and the long distance relationship had been a great distraction for any feelings she might have for any of the girls in her class, while not letting her actually get to close to Joffrey.

With the switch to Winterfell and the break-up with Joffrey, all the distraction she had quickly went out the window. She hadn't meant to start hanging around with Jorelle. They had the same literature class together and she knew that Arya often ate lunch with her and her sister.

Sansa was startled out of her memories, flinching when she felt Theon's hands on her shoulders. "This situation is totally different. She was straight. You know that Margaery likes girls. I think if you just give it time that she'll come around. She'd be fucking stupid to turn you down."

"Thanks, Theon. You're probably right - if this is going to happen then it will. Ya know, sometimes I don't know how you can be so obnoxious in groups but so sweet around me," she said, feeling herself begin to smile without really trying to.

"Don't tell Jon, but you've always been my favorite Stark," he said. "Well, after Robb that is."

Sansa laughed at that, forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be upset.

"There. Can I take that to mean you're feeling better?" Theon asked, watching Sansa nod. "Good, because the night is young and you and I are going out. Pizza and karaoke, no buts, no refusing." He pushed the blanket off his lap and stood up from the couch, pulling the rest of the blanket off Sansa. "Get upstairs and put on something cute. If Margaery Tyrell shows up we wanna show her exactly what she's missing." He reached down and pulled her up by her arms, walking her towards the stairs. "Go!"

Hearing Theon's footsteps go off towards his downstairs room, she ran up the stairs and stood in front of her closet. Normally she would prefer more than the couple minutes that he was giving her to get ready to go out, but as she stared down her wardrobe she told herself she would need to make due. _I'm not sure why I'm letting Theon drag me out with him_ , she thought, quickly kicking off her slippers and rummaging through her clothes to find something acceptable. _He's got a point though. I can't let my feelings for her ruin anything, my life or hers. Worrying about it won't make it happen any faster... and besides, it's been too long since Theon and I have hung out, just the two of us. This'll be good for both of us_.

She finally found something that caught her eye, changed, and did practically nothing to her hair, save for pulling it out of the Arya-style messy braid that it had been in, before heading back downstairs, only to be caught in that sort of stare she knew Theon gave her when he was thinking either about how much he wished she didn't play for the other team or how much he wished he was able to not think of her practically as a sister.

"Fuck, Sans. If Robb or Jon find out I let you out of the house dressed like that they'll murder me."

"What? You don't think I look good?" Sansa asked, taking a quick look at herself. _Okay, maybe this did go a little overboard_. She'd found a baby blue dress, if you could call it a dress. It was probably not much longer than some sweaters she owned and left no room for any imagination. Sansa couldn't remember why she'd bought it in the first place, aside from the color it definitely was not her normal style.

"No, no, that's not what I said --"

"You really think either of them are coming home tonight?" Sansa asked, finishing her walk over to where Theon was standing, stopping a few feet in front of him and placing her hands on her hips. She was already the same height as him barefoot and the heels she had on tonight made her able to look down at him.

“No, not with both Jeyne and Ygritte’s roommates gone for the weekend—”

“Alright then, mister,” she said, interrupting him, then looping her left arm through his left and pulling him towards the coat rack near the front door. “Don’t wimp out on me here. You promised me a good night out, now let’s get a move on before I lose my nerve!” With that, she grabbed her old leather jacket off the rack, pushed Theon’s windbreaker into his arms, and led him out into the slightly chilly Highgarden night.

Everyone in Highgarden must have had the same idea as Theon had that night. The bars were packed, lines forming outside the doors. They gave up on the closest couple of bars before even setting foot in line, finally heading a little further into campus, stopping at Kneeling Man Inn for some pizza and then to a smaller bar that was full of townies on the weeknights, but attracted a good crowd of HPU students on Fridays and Saturdays with promises of cheap well drink specials and an enthusiastic karaoke night with a great emcee.

After splitting a pitcher, Sansa had finally worked up enough courage to sing some songs with Theon. They’d done this before, even if it was just in front of the Stark brood years ago, and compared to other lack-luster performances that nigh, the round of applause they would receive after songs was more than enough to spur Sansa on for more songs. She had the voice from years of singing lessons and the looks, Theon had the stage presence. Once they had made it through a couple of songs, they decided to end their karaoke streak with a particularly animated rendition of Meatloaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, which was great for Sansa’s somewhat innocent appeal and amazing for Theon’s smarmy attitude, and they found themselves taking the seats of two people who had just got up from the main counter at the bar.

“Plenty of hot chicks here to help get your mind off her if you really wanted to,” Theon said, seconds after they sat down and Sansa started peering around the dance floor.

“Hah! Easy for you, Greyjoy. I bet not one of these girls in here is interested in me over you.”

“Course not. Everybody in here is interested in me, babe.”

“Shut up, I'm serious. Not only do I have to find a girl that also happens to like girls, but I've gotta find one that thinks I'm hot.”

“Alright, enough pity party,” he started, nodding his head in thanks at the bartender and pushing Sansa’s drink towards her. “This isn't the Sansa Stark that I like. The Sansa Stark that I know is the only freshman girl forward on the Highgarden hockey team. She's acing all her classes and she got hired at the first place she applied at. She's hot shit, beautiful, kissed by fire like Jon's wildling girl, and she's not gonna let some girl who doesn't know what's fucking good for her ruin her night out. Come on, let's dance.”

She looked from the drink in her hand and back over to Theon. _He means that_ , she realized. _You know what? Who’s to say that he’s not right? I am actually pretty gods damn amazing… and if luck should have it and there is some girl here who might like me, she’s certainly not going to be attracted to me if I’m sulking at the bar, commiserating into a pint._

“Alright,” she said, standing up and taking a long drink from her glass so it wouldn’t spill, “Let’s dance.” She smiled at Theon, probably one of her first genuine smiles she’d given him the whole time, and held her hand out, letting him lead her out to the dance floor.

A half hour later and they were both still out there. No one had approached either of them, everyone probably assuming they were a couple, but that wasn’t bothering her. She was having a great time, dancing and joking with Theon, laughing about how they'd practically had a workout on the dance floor already.

He turned her around whenever he wanted to show her a new girl he thought was hot, and especially when he’d catch some other girl’s eye who was sitting at the bar or dancing in a circle with her group of girlfriends.

“No, I don't think so, she's looking at me,” Sansa replied, smirking and laughing, wondering if the yellow-haired girl was really staring at her, or Theon, or just in that general direction.

_Oh shit_ , Sansa thought, looking over Theon's shoulder towards the entry to the bar. She was still in the middle of the dance floor with Theon, not paying attention to much else aside from the blaring top-40s dance music, not spilling the drink in her hand, and dancing ridiculously with him. He was a good partner for this – Jon was usually too serious and critical of pop music and Robb would've been too busy watching for any other man that happened to even look at Sansa for longer than a couple milliseconds to be any fun.

She saw Theon notice as her eyes grew wide and she moved so he was almost blocking her from view. It was Margaery, of course. _Of course she’d come here. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why would we come to a bar that’s for townies when she’s damned townie?_ She watched as Margaery walked in the door, taking her ID back from the bouncer and replacing it into the little floral printed wristlet that Sansa had bought her when she’d aced her organic gardening midterm. Loras was with her, so was Renly and her cousins, and a couple of housemates.

“Theon, what do I do? She's for sure seen me by now and is gonna come over here... Gods, she'll know I lied about being busy. I'm so screwed. Might as well kill me now, Greyjoy, I'm done for anyways,” Sansa scrambled to say. The words flew out of her mouth before she knew was she was saying.

“Hey, slow it down, kid,” Theon said, resting both hands on her arms and trying to humor her a bit. “I've got plenty of practice making up excuses to pretty ladies on the fly. I got ya covered.” He flashed what the group had come to think of as the “Theon Greyjoy is fucking up to something” smile and released Sansa’s arms, leaving her to stare in horror as he enthusiastically waved and yelled for Margaery to come on over.

She stood in shock as Margaery noticed Theon and herself, threw on her signature high beams smile and casually walked over.

“Hey, Sans, didn't think I'd be seeing you around tonight. Weren't you locking yourself in at home with some reading for finals or something?”

_Oh seven hells, she looks perfect tonight._ She was dressed down much more than Sansa was, almost simply dressed in the same pair of skintight light-washed jeans she’d seen her in hundreds of times by now, but a new dark green tank top with spaghetti straps that fastened the entire length of the front with hook and eye closures. She carried a brown suede jacket over arm. _You’ve got this Stark_ , she told herself. _Her eyes are up there, don’t act like Theon and think about undoing those hook and eye closures… come on, now’s the time to use your words…_

“Well, ya see, um... thing is...”

_Shit, Sansa, you can do this. Form. A. Sentence._

“Sorry, Tyrell, looks like Red here's had a few too many blue lagoons to remember how to form complete sentences,” Theon jumped in to say, saving her from her slow moving mind. “She was busy on some reading when I got back from work, but I had a real shit day and bugged her 'til she agreed to come get me drunk. Looks like she's the drunk now, though.”

They both looked over at Margaery, who laughed and nodded at that. “Yea, sure is a cheap date, isn't she?”

“Hey!” Sansa exclaimed. “I'm still right here, guys!”

“Aww, don't be pissed, babe. It's just truth. You are a bit of a lightweight,” Margaery replied smiling. Sansa could see Loras hiding his face in Renly’s shoulder, trying not to laugh, probably remembering the number of early nights Sansa had at their house this semester.

Theon cleared his throat. “You mind if Sansa hangs out with you guys? She's probably tired of my ass by now.”

“No, Theon, it's cool. I came here with you and all,” Sansa said, turning to face him.

“Really, it's cool,” he said, holding on to her arm for a moment and stressing those last two words. He was facing away from Margaery so only Sansa could notice the slight head nod and wink he gave her. “Besides, if I keep buying you drinks and dancing with you it'll be real fucking hard for me to make friends with that blonde at your 4 o'clock.”

She processed that for a second, turning her head just slightly and recognizing the girl he’d pointed out earlier. _Oh, so that's what angle he's gonna play. Well, he seemed to tell a convincing story to Mags so I guess I'll leave him to his own means to find whatever unfortunate girl gets to eat breakfast at our house tomorrow morning._

Margaery pulled her into a hug once Theon started to walk away, kissing the side of her face before letting her go. _She does that to everyone, even Ygritte, so don’t get excited._ A second later she felt Margaery’s arm go around her shoulders, leading her over to where her cousins and housemates had gathered at a large booth. She turned her head to look for Theon, shrugging when he sent her an exaggerated wink and approached the blonde girl.

The next morning, Sansa walked downstairs at entirely too early of a time to have closed out the bar with Margaery only a few hours earlier, but the sun had been streaming onto her face for the last fifteen minutes and pulling the covers over her head was no longer cutting it. She'd grabbed her pillow, letting it drag behind her, thumping down each step on the stairs, and tossed it onto the couch before turning into the kitchen. She was surprised to see Theon already in the kitchen, prepping up twin coffee cups and bowls of cereal.

“... so did you...?” Sansa asked, tilting her head to the side at Theon as she grabbed a coffee mug out of the cupboard. A boyish grin broke out on his face and he eagerly nodded his head. “The blonde?”

“That'd be the one. Or Bethany, at least I'm pretty certain that's what she said her name is,” he explained, shrugging his shoulders and filling up Sansa's coffee mug. “How'd your night go with Margaery?”

“Really well,” she replied quickly, but then saw the mischievous face that Theon was making. “No, sadly, not really well in _that_ way... but still an awesome night. How about we talk later, okay? I'll give you the rundown. It'd probably be best if you rejoined your new little lady. I'd hate for her to think something was going on out here.”

Grabbing her coffee, she started to walk out of the kitchen, but stopped to turn around. Sansa set the mug back on the counter and quickly walked over to Theon to wrap her arms around him in a hug. “I just wanted to say thank you,” she started as she pulled away from him a few seconds later. “I think everything is going to turn out okay.”

_That's right_ , she thought, grabbing the coffee and walking out to lay on the couch, watch some Saturday morning cartoons, and probably fall asleep again within the hour. _I'm certain everything is going turn out okay._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all :) Since we found out in the last chapter about Margaery's feelings, I thought it'd be good to give Sansa a chapter to explore hers. The song for this chapter might be bit harder to pick out, it's not as obvious as some, but it's "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows. The conversation between the singer and Mr. Jones in the song really reminded me of a conversation that could easily happen between Sansa and Theon. I've always had this headcanon that in modernAU's that they're bffs despite no one else really realizing it.
> 
> It's been a while since I updated this story, but I've got chapter six a little more than halfway done and we're jumping ahead to 1998 for that one. I also have chapter seven completely done. Chapter seven WILL be when we see how they finally get together. 
> 
> Stick around and let me know if there are any little moments you want me to include.
> 
> Oh, and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Festivus, Winter Solstice, or whatever other December-time holiday you take part in!


	6. The Greatest Fan of Your Life

**Chapter 6: The Greatest Fan of Your Life (September/October 1998)**

September 26th, 1998

“Mags, this was the worst idea ever, especially in Kings Landing. Can you believe it feels hotter here than in Highgarden? It’s the middle of September, for gods’ sake. I swear to the Seven, winter is never coming to Kings Landing this year, maybe never again!”

Sansa watched her wife’s eyes follow her as she wobbled her way across their condo from the bedroom to stop in front of the thermostat next to the kitchen, lowering the temperature for probably that third time that morning. Margaery was sitting at the kitchen table, her work-issued Apple PowerBook in front of her and various lab notebooks open and scattered across the table. Still dressed in the spaghetti strap tank-top and light blue gym shorts she’d worn to bed the night before, Sansa turned and headed off towards the living room, laying down on the couch and getting situated with a large glass of water and pointing the nearby fan at herself. Margaery had heard time and time again about how the acidity of Sansa's favorite Dornish lemonade now gave her horrible heartburn and she'd been relegated to either water or the caffeine-free ginger ale, which she claimed was the worst thing she'd ever tasted since that jungle juice Theon has cooked up in a giant blue plastic storage tub during her sophomore year.

“First, it’s the crowdedness of the city that makes it this damn sweltering. No shady trees and open fields for breezes like in the Reach. And secondly,” Margaery said, getting up from her spot at the table and kneeling on the floor in front of the couch, “Don’t you remember how hot it was the summer we met? You spent that first semester sitting out on your roof because all the heat rose into your room and you couldn’t survive without air conditioning.”

“Oh, you shush. I’d spent eighteen years with summers didn’t get over 75 degrees at that point. And besides, you’re not the one carrying this thing around all day,” she said, gesturing towards her stomach. “I’d always thought pregnancy was some magical gift, but the only gifts I’m seeing are swollen feet, sweat saturating through all of my clothes, and having to pee about a million times in a day. I can't even remember the numbers of times I had to leave to go to the bathroom during yesterday's parliament session... Monday's article is going to be a complete mess because of it. I'll be lucky if the editors don't toss me out of the building.”

“This _thing_ , love, is our son or daughter and you’ll be over the top when you meet them, I promise. T-minus five weeks and counting, right? Not much longer.” She climbed up on the couch next to Sansa, holding her up for a moment and placing the pillow back in her lap for her to lie down again.

“I do love them, Mags, you know that. I just can't wait until they decide to make their grand entrance. I'm so completely over at this point. If we have another baby after this, it'll be your turn.”

Margaery laughed, running her fingers through Sansa's hair. It had been long and mid-way down her back when she had graduated from Highgarden, she'd come home a month or so ago with it cut in a layered style that was choppy and just barely hitting her shoulders, claiming that she couldn't stand it any longer in the heat with hair that long.

Pregnancy had not been kind to Sansa. Everyone at her office at the Kings Landing Times had been unbelievably supportive when she had announced that her and Margaery were going to have a baby, and that they had decided that she would be the one to carry it. _If someone had told me then what exactly pregnancy was really like_ , Sansa thought, _perhaps I wouldn't have been so romantic about the whole idea. I thought I had a good idea of what to expect, what with watching Mom through Bran and Rickon, and Robb's Jeyne too, but I guess not after all._ After they began the in-vitro treatments and Sansa got the first positive test, her group at work had found out somehow – through Margaery it turned out in the end – and thrown her a surprise party during lunch in the break room, complete with a large tray of lemoncakes with “congratulations!” written in icing across it, a white letter on each square bar.

Shortly afterwards, however, she found herself battling with the most fearsome morning sickness she could've ever imagined. She'd expected a little bit, hells, she'd checked out and read just about every “what to expect when you're expecting” book from the library and each and every one of them send it was perfectly normal. What she didn't expect was that her morning sickness wouldn't understand that it was, by the nature of its name, supposed to happen only in the morning. It seemed to suffer from jet lag, creeping up on her during dinner with Margaery or the middle of the night, but it's favorite time to attack was when was she was out in the city doing research, trying to get questions answered by some cabinet member or CEO, or in the middle of watching a debate. Her supervisor understood, saying he remembered what it was like for his wife for their first child, and would simply wave her out of the room when she ran to the bathroom most mornings during their round table department meetings about the next day's issue.

The nausea gave her a little bit of reprieve towards the end of May, thankfully just in time for her 23rd birthday, as well as a particularly scandalous affair between one of the married cabinet members and a well-known energy lobbyist that came to light. Sansa had been suspicious of it for a while and had been pulling informants out of the woodwork to try to get this story to press before any of the other news outlets in Kings Landing picked it up. The article was given the front-page headline, another huge first for Sansa, but the next day she was met with more bad news at her doctor's office. She'd known for a while that she'd have to have the appointment to test her for gestational diabetes for a while now, having to get it a bit earlier than most once her mother has told her she'd had it with both Robb and Arya, but she never thought they would tell her she had it too. In her mind she had always ate correctly, still exercised between bouts of nausea, and really tried to do everything according to the book. She told herself that when her mother was pregnant they didn't have these types of resources like they had nowadays.

She was wrong. After downing an obscene amount of the most saccharine liquid she'd ever tasted in her life, watching Margaery fidget nervously in the seat next to her while they waited, and then getting her blood drawn, her doctor came back in, telling her in the nicest way possible that basically her results were very high and they'd need to her to come back in to the office two days later for the longer three hour test in order to confirm.

_Even after that first test I still thought I was invincible. Never thought I was one of those “it'll never happen to me” types, but I guess I was still a bit naïve._

Thinking that the first test had been a fluke, Sansa went about the next two days as she normally would. Two days came and went quickly though, and she soon found herself reliving the same basic test, except about three times as long, waiting for good news that never came. She listened as her doctor explained all that she'd need to do to control the problem, eat right, keep exercising... even going so far as to write a prescription for the glucose meter that she'd need in order to keep tabs on her levels and the insulin shots. A nurse came in to instruct Sansa on how to use the machine and give herself the injection, letting her know that she can call or come into the office at any time if she needed help or had any questions. Simply nodding and letting her brain absorb all the information, she put up the mask she'd used a million times in the past, except this time it wasn't used to block out the other girls in high school, the taunts of the pounding hockey sticks from rival forwards seconds before the puck drop, or her real thoughts when interviewing a member of Parliament that clearly had no idea how to do their job. The phone in their apartment rang minutes after they arrived home and it wasn't until Sansa heard her mother's voice on the other end of the line that all her walls came down and she sank down to sit on the floor of their kitchen, legs straight out in front of her, and finally let herself cry.

 _I can't believe that was over two months ago_ , Sansa thought. _Mags is right, only a little bit longer to go. She placed her hand on her large stomach and smiled. I am excited to meet you, little guy or gal. Mom's just nervous as all hells and I'm sorry, but you're pretty uncomfortable to carry around in the heat. I'm sure you understand._

Her thoughts were interrupted when Margaery shifted on the couch, lifting Sansa's head out of her lap. “Sorry, love,” she began. “Time to get up and ready. You've got to be excited for the baby shower, yea?”

_Shit. That snuck up._

“Yea, about as excited as I can be to see all my friends and family in this state I'm in,” Sansa answered, pushing herself off the couch.

Margaery quickly stood up next to her and rose up on her tip toes to be closer to Sansa's height. “Stop it with that. I'm tired of hearing all these self-deprecating statements about how you're fat or you look awful. No one thinks that. Your family doesn't, your friends don't, and you know for damn sure that I don't think that. Now, come on, you're gonna grab a shower, put on some clothes that you didn't sleep in, and we're gonna open some baby gifts and have one hell of a good time, got it?”

Sansa stood quietly for a minute before nodding her head, moving it so little that it was probably imperceivable to the human eye, but she took a deep breath and walked around Margaery. _No use in trying to procrastinate_ , she thought. _Today's the day, nothing I can do to make it go away._

She'd only made it a couple of steps around the corner towards the hallway leading to the bedrooms when she heard Margaery's footsteps behind and then felt her lay her hands softly on both her shoulders, letting the shorter girl pull her to her chest. She let herself relax, wishing she could melt fully into her, feeling warm breath on her neck and recognizing the familiar smells of strong coffee, the rosy perfume Grandma Tyrell gives each year, and fruity body wash that she's grown to associate with her. A few breathes later, Margaery finally spoke.

“The way you're acting... this is about having to see your mother, isn't it?”

 _...and there it is_ , Sansa thought, nodding her head in the affirmative. _Should've known she'd figure it out sooner or later._

She allowed Margaery to turn her around, hands leaving her shoulders to wander up and down her arms and gave her a look that Sansa understood as simply a request to talk to her.

“I know she's only here throwing this party for me because she regrets everything that's happened. And I do want a relationship with my mom, Mags, I really, really do... but we haven't talked to each other properly since Dad's accident, save for me sobbing on the phone a few months ago, so when was that? Almost two years ago this December....”

XxXxXxX

December 15th, 1996

It'd been two in the morning when Sansa and Margaery had woken up to someone's incessant banging on the front door to the little one bedroom apartment that they'd been renting since the wedding. Both were initially hesitant to open the door since it sounded like whoever it was at the door was trying to beat the damned thing down. Margaery had finally sat up in bed, tossed the comforter off, and muttered something about how “burglars don't knock” and answered the door, only to find a soaken-through and very frantic Arya Stark, eyes brimming with tears and face stained with eyeliner that she must have smudged wiping at her eyes, clutching tightly at the hand of her 'just-friend' Gendry, a charade which Margaery had easily seen past since the first time she'd seen them together, the summer when Arya convinced her mother to let her move to Highgarden at the beginning of the summer instead of the end.

This was the first time that Margaery had seen Arya in a state like this. She wasn't unemotional, in fact it was really quite the opposite, but waking up to a teary-eyed and nervous Arya was an occurrence that she had never been privy to before.

The next few hours were a blur in all their lives that they wished they never had to experience. Arya pulled Gendry in the door, practically bowling over Margaery as she went past her, shivering from the cold rain and hurriedly trying to string words together to make a coherent sentence, but only managing to get out something about “dad” and “accident” and “hospital” and “air-lifted”. Margaery decided that this was something that Arya could explain to Sansa alone and let her stomp off towards the bedroom. Instead of going along, she put her arm around Gendry, ushering him towards the kitchenette, taking his wet windbreaker from him and putting a kettle on the stove to get everyone warmed up. She tended to the tea and listened to the story from Gendry's much more calm mouth.

They'd been sitting around at the Stark house for the normal Saturday night movie get-together. Margaery and Sansa had both been over earlier for dinner and stayed to watch Toy Story, but had headed back home before Theon put in the second movie. When the phone rang, Theon was snoring in an armchair, Robb and Jeyne has already drove home to relieve their babysitter, and Arya and Gendry had been sitting on the couch finishing up Braveheart. Arya had shot an angry face at Gendry when she had to get up to answer it, but called back to him from the other room that it was her mother. There'd been an accident at the job site where Ned, his brother Benjen, and the rest of their crew had been working at that day. He explained to Margaery the little bit of what he had heard from Arya's half of the conversation with Catelyn and tried to stay out of her way as the pushed Theon out of sleep, yelled at him to phone Robb, and then announced to Gendry that they were going to walk to Sansa and Margaery's apartment.

Something had happened at the job site, one of those accidents that is always liable to happen during logging, one of the ones they always warn against, but something had happened and Ned and his brother had both ended up under two large logs, Benjen's leg breaking and Ned taking the brunt of it, trying to push his little brother out of the way, only to end up under more himself. They weren't sure what was broken, but both brothers had been air-lifted to the hospital in Winterfell. Catelyn had called as soon as she had heard what had happened.

When Sansa and Arya entered the kitchen about ten minutes later, it was still Arya that seemed to be calling the shots, the same way Gendry had explained that she did earlier, almost proudly. Five hours later, bags had been quickly thrown together and the whole group, Margaery and Sansa, Arya and Gendry, Robb, Jeyne, little Ned, and even Theon met at the train station in downtown Highgarden and caught the first train out of town heading north to Winterfell. The normally two day long drive would take closer to a full day on the high speed rail line that had just been completed, and there had been no way that all of them would've been able to catch flights in such short notice.

They arrived at Winterfell and were picked up at the station by Jon and Ygritte, first to arrive from his proximity due to being stationed at the Castle Black military compound only a couple hour’s drive north from town. The ride to the hospital from the station was short and Jon quickly led the large group up to Ned's room. Margaery remembered standing in the hallway with Gendry, Theon, Jon, and Ygritte, the group of outsiders, quietly watching the family running to one another, quickly able to discern the dynamics of the family. Catelyn stood up from the bedside chair when she heard the group, only to be enveloped in a large hug from a crying Jeyne and a Robb that was clearly just trying to hold himself together. Arya had dropped Gendry's hand once she caught sight of her mother, but instead of joining the group she pulled another chair up and sat beside her sleeping father's bed, looking over him cautiously before deciding it'd be okay to grab his hand. There'd been no one for Sansa at that moment, and without Ned to be on her side, Margaery was still unsure of how to conduct herself around Catelyn. She knew that Sansa was uncomfortable around her mother and was so thankful when Rickon and Bran came in a minute later, clinging onto Sansa and saving her from her lonely stance in the doorway shifting her weight between her left and right feet.

After reunions and Catelyn's attempt at an explanation, the attending doctor asked them all if they could join him in the waiting room and let everyone know what was happening. Uncle Benjen had told them all about the accident, with one of the cables failing on the flat bed truck and sending a number of logs falling off to where they both had been picking up the rest of their equipment at the end of the day. The doctor explained that the weight combined with the momentum of the logs had caused the injury and that Ned had injured three of the vertebrae in his lower back, as well has having numerous broken ribs, a body full of bruises, and enough pain that he'd been at the point of delirium and they'd been forced to knock him out until he stabilized. They wanted to keep him in the hospital for a few days to monitor everything and get the pain manageable before releasing him to go home, but the doctor had told them that in the grand scheme of things that everything was going to be alright, albeit having to be in stabilizing casts for this back and ribs for about twelve weeks.

Hours later and most of the group had left the hospital to grab some lunch and drop off all the bags back at the Stark house. It had been Robb's idea that it would be a good idea to get Rickon out of the hospital, since the youngest Stark was starting to get a little stir-crazy and it would do all of them some good to get a bit of fresh air. The nurses had some regular check up work to do on Ned and it would go smoother without all the spectators anyways. He'd left with Jeyne, Theon, Jon, Ygritte, Bran, and Rickon filling up the mini-van. Arya had volunteered herself and Gendry to stay behind, along with Margaery and Sansa, and everyone knew it was pointless to try and get Catelyn to leave the hospital.

Arya immediately dragged Gendry to the basement cafeteria, saying that she remembered from when she was in here for her broken leg that the food wasn’t half bad, and asking Sansa and Margaery to join, but Sansa had replied that she wasn't hungry yet, that she'd get a drink in the cafe on their floor in case the doctors needed anything. Sansa had went into the little coffee shop to order, and in the time that it had taken Margaery to circle the floor twice looking for the bathroom and get back to the cafe, Catelyn had sat herself down at the same table as Sansa. Margaery stopped in the doorway, knowing that this was possibly the first time Sansa had spoke with her mother since they had went to Robb's wedding and also knowing full well that the conversation which happened at the wedding could barely even pass for a conversation. _I’ve had more heartfelt conversations with strangers on the bus_ , she remembered thinking. _Whatever they're doing, I'll just let them._

She stood quietly in the doorway and watched the awkward body language between mother and daughter become more natural until finally Sansa sat her coffee cup down on the table and threw herself into Catelyn, arms going around her and winding through auburn hair two shades darker than her own. They sat like that for Margaery isn't sure how long, she could see heads nodding and that was the only way she knew they were still talking. Finally, Catelyn stood, brushing long hair out of Sansa's face and walking towards the doorway, towards Margaery. She was coming to talk to her next and Margaery had no clue the direction that this was going to go in.

“I know I've been shit at showing it,” Catelyn abruptly started, leaving Margaery to visibly wince at the swear word that sounded so awkward from her mouth, “but that girl in there with the cappuccino, I love her with all my heart--”

“Mrs. Stark, maybe this isn't the best time to --”

“Don't interrupt me, please,” Catelyn said over her. “I love her with all my heart. All of my children. Even Arya when she mouths off to me, even Bran when he outsmarts me to get what he wants, even Rickon when he reminds me more of a wolf-child than a fourteen-year-old, even Robb when he says we need to move up the wedding because Jeyne's pregnant, and,” she paused, bringing her hand up to the side of Margaery's head, “even Sansa when she tells me she's chosen to be with you. It was my mistake to cut off Sansa because she loves you, I've known that for a while now. We were so close when she was growing up and I'd always envisioned what her wedding would be like, meeting the man she'd choose, listening to Ned explain to him on the doorstep what would happen if he hurt our baby girl, meeting grandchildren, everything. But I've come to terms now, especially with all of this happening so suddenly, that what I wanted for Sansa was my dream, not hers, and I've already fulfilled mine. For years I've listened to all of the family explain to me how perfect you two are for each other and I'm ready to be a part of your lives, if you'll let me.”

She'd stood there stunned, in front of the hospital coffee shop, for the longest few seconds of disbelief before she looked over at the little table that Sansa was sitting at. She caught her gaze and saw the huge smile come across Sansa's face, looking odd against eyes blood-shot from crying and the bags under her eyes that told of the lack of sleep she’d caught on the train, and knew what it meant.

“That's all both of us ever wanted,” Margaery said.

XxXxXxXxX

“I know, babe, I know. But you know too, that your mother is trying her best to make up for what happened in the beginning, yea?” Margaery said, still holding onto Sansa in the hallway, who quickly nodded.

“I'll give it a chance. I really will,” Sansa replied, pulling away from Margaery to head towards the bathroom to get ready.

They headed out to the baby shower a little less than an hour later, Sansa in a light blue babydoll dress that she had grudgingly bought last week after Margaery had persistently reminded her that a lot of her more formal wear didn't fit and that she wouldn't want to wear her normal black or gray pantsuits for work to the shower. _Mags was right,_ she thought. _It's got to be almost a hundred degrees out today and the idea of getting heat stroke in the middle of Aegon Square is not exact appealing._ She was sitting cross-legged on a pillow in front of the couch. Margaery was sat behind her, fixing her hair. She'd allowed Margaery to braid the front of hair back, knowing that it would make her mother happy to see her a hairstyle that slightly resembled those of her childhood since she had cut her hair short.

It only took a minute or two for Margaery to hail a taxi, telling the driver they needed to go to the Cinnamon Wind Tea Shop down on Sixth Avenue, and helping Sansa squeeze herself into the backseat.

“I can hardly believe she's been here for three days and we haven't seen her yet,” she said when Margaery let herself in the opposite door and scooted close to her. Her hand was quickly snatched and held in Mag's lap.

“Just wait. It'll be amazing, you'll see.”

“How can you know?”

Margaery turned in the seat to face Sansa. “Well, hells, Sansa, think about it! Catelyn's been here for three days and you haven't seen her once. It's gotta be totally difficult to plan the shower from Winterfell so I'll bet she's here getting everything perfect. I don't think that Catelyn Stark does anything half ass.”

“Yea,” Sansa laughed, “I guess you are right.”

She let go of Sansa's hand to stretch her arm jokingly over her shoulders, pulling her towards her and twitching her eyebrows up, which Sansa immediately recognized as her impersonation of Theon from the first time she'd met him. “Besides, I picked up Arya from Blackwater Station yesterday while you were at work, she told me all about the plans.”

Sansa dropped her mouth open, scoffing and pretending to be appalled at Margaery, but second she saw Margaery quirk her head to the side, her face transformed back into a smile.

It only took about fifteen minutes to get from their apartment to the tea shop her mother had rented. Sansa wondered for a second how her mother knew that this was her favorite tea shop in the city, but figured either Margaery or Arya had helped her with that detail. She discovered the Cinnamon Wind during her first week in town. Only a couple of minutes' walk away from the Kings Landing Times offices, she'd stumbled in there after her nearly missing her first deadline from all the stress of moving and still having to do her research.

The place was perfect. All of the workers were welcoming from the first footstep she took through the doors, and she'd quickly learn all their names and little details about their lives, much like she had down on the other side of the counter working at the coffee shop back in Highgarden however many years ago. Sansa had always imagined tea shops as delicate places, plush carpets and sofas you sank into, lacy curtains, doilies for each spot at a table, but this place was different. It was sleek and modern, but still felt comfortable enough to spend time there. The floor was poured concrete, the ceilings were high and exposed to the ductwork that had been painted a deep warm burgundy. The walls were painted an equally warm gray, complimenting the colors in the ductwork, and the lamps and wall sconces crafted from iron and vintage jars worked to make the whole place well-lit against the dark walls. Each table was different, some bought from flea markets that were sanded back to their original glory, others that were handcrafted from reclaimed wood. There was a fireplace surrounded by wingback chairs, while all of the rest of the tables had eclectically upholstered chairs, some in seafoam green suedes, others in brightly printed fabrics, and the fabric on all of them was held in place with rows of brass studs.

Her mother had taken care of all of the preparations, with Margaery happily helping when she could, and she was sure that Arya had helped, just maybe less than happily than Margaery. Everyone was already at the Cinnamon Wind when they arrived, both guests of honor, and they were seated at a little head table in a room that had been decorated to be even more welcoming than it normally was. The tables were covered with crisp white tablecloths, Black-eyed Susans and baby's breath propped in vases in the center of each table. She noticed that each little place card either had the howling direwolf or the golden Tyrell rose.

Her mother was the obligatory master of ceremony, letting everyone know where to put presents, when the food was ready, and guiding everyone through the shower games she had planned. Sansa was amazed at how many people had came, work friends of the both of them were seated together, Aunt Lysa was making startlingly good conversation with Margaery's grandmother, even Jeyne Poole had made the journey down from Winterfell with Catelyn.

Sansa was seated at their head table, Margaery had volunteered to go up and get some snacks for both of them, but her face fell when Margaery returned with her plate filled with lemoncakes.

“Mags, babe, you know I can't eat these anymore. The Doctor would have a fit,” she explained, thinking of the blood sugar test she'd have to take that evening.

“Well, actually, Arya made them and --”

“Hells, if that's the case then I really want to eat them!” Sansa joked.

She didn't notice Arya walk up the table, but she definitely heard her. “Hey! I resent that comment. I'll have you know that not only are those lemoncakes sugar-free but they're gods damn delicious. I worked for a week on them, so if you don't believe me, you can call Gendry and ask him yourself. He was my guinea pig for the taste-testing,” she added, looked at the plate in from of Sansa smugly.

 _Well, as far as I know Gendry is still around, so at least they won't kill me,_ she thought. _Highly doubt she'd poison her boyfriend, err, boyfriend-type person anyways._

“Fine, I'll try one.”

Arya stared, narrowing her eyes, arms crossed, watching Sansa break off a corner of one of the lemoncakes and pop it into her mouth.

_Seven hells._

Her eyes grew wide in disbelief.

“You're a miracle worker,” Sansa managed to say between more bites. Surprisingly, Arya just gave her a knowing smile and returned to where she had been sitting.

Afterwards, her mother and Margaery started to take all of the presents out of the shop, and Sansa was left to find some other way to make herself useful. Even though she was this far along, she was used to her days being full, so after sitting around for the few hours at the shower she was starting to feel restless. She began to walk around the room collecting the flowers from the vases when she heard Arya's voice yelling behind her.

“Hey, preggers, wait up!”

She turned around, slouching a bit with one hand full of sprigs of baby's breath and the other resting on her lower back. There was no time for her to think of a clever retort.

“Arya Lyanna Stark! How many times have I told you not to call your sister that?” Her mother yelled from across the room. Sansa hadn't even noticed that her mother had come back into the building, but her gaze quickly went to her, seeing the daggers her eyes threw at Arya, the normal Catelyn Stark 'don't mess with me young lady' look they often got as children, Arya and Rickon much more often than Sansa.

Shaking her head, she walked the twenty or so feet over to Arya, hearing her groan loudly as she got closer. “Plenty of times, mom,” she yelled back, obvious to Sansa that she was using all her willpower to tone down her usual snark. As their mother huffed and walked out of the building again with an armful of gifts, Arya turned to Sansa. “You'd think she'd stop scolding me like that by now. Gods! I'm 21 years old!”

“Maybe if you acted 21 years old then she wouldn't scold you like that,” she suggested, only to have Arya roll her eyes at her in return. “Anyways, what's going on? Need something?”

_She's nervous, I can tell. I wonder what she's up to. It's always something nowadays._

“Well, I know you got pretty much everything from your registry and I really did wanna get you something, but,” she paused, biting at her lower lip as was her habit whenever she was nervous and trying to hide it. Sansa knew that Arya thought no one knew about this, that she was thought she was always able to hold her emotion in check, but they'd gotten much closer while at Highgarden. She wasn't transparent to Sansa, but she was much more so than when they were in high school. “Shit, Sansa, none of that baby crap is my thing, you know that. Besides, I figured the baby will have enough presents that maybe you'd want something for yourself.”

She turned to look at her little sister, obviously dressed by their mother this morning. Her hair had been meticulously curled, pulled back away from her face, she was even wearing makeup. Well, makeup that was different from the pounds of eyeliner she wore most days. _At least Mom let her choose her dress_. It was much dressier than she would normally wear, but you could tell that she had a hand in the decision. It was a simple a-line dress, deep forest green with a lace overlay and cap sleeves, hitting just above her knees. _Those shoes are definitely Mom's doing_ , she thought. _Strappy sandals with heels? Jon and Theon would laugh so hard they'd cry._

She sighed. “Arya, you know you don't have to...” stops short, notices Arya's outstretched hand, holding a cassette in a translucent pink case. She couldn't make out what was written on the front, but it looked like Arya's tight left-slanted handwriting.

“It's not much,” she paused for a moment when Sansa took the cassette from her, turning it over and over in her hands. Arya was still nervous, showing it in her lack of confidence and rambling words. “I know mix tapes are sort of uncool but I don't have a CD burner on my computer and Gendry's got this awesome stereo so he helped too. It's probably not a lot of the crap you normally listen to, but it's all songs about the baby... Gendry was adamant it needed to have a theme...”

“Oh, Arya,” she managed to say before closing the couple of steps between them and pulling her sister into a crushing hug. _I never expected this from her_ , Sansa realized as she started to cry loudly. _Even if part was Gendry's idea, I can't imagine how much time it took her to get a tape full of songs recorded._

“Hells, Sansa, stop crying. It's just a present, yea?” She pulled back a couple inches, butt already sticking out from trying to not be crushed into Sansa's stomach.

She kept a tight hold on Arya's forearms, keeping her in place and smiling down at her, though not as far down she normally would have to thanks to Arya's heels and her flats. “It's the best present,” she said firmly, letting go of an arm for second to wipe more tears from her eyes. “I love it, really I do. The sugar-free lemoncakes too, they were amazing.”

“You two coming along?” They both looked up when they heard their mother's voice from the front door. “The spot out front is only a fifteen minute loading zone.”

“Yes, mother!” Sansa yelled. She tucked the cassette tape into her bag and looped her arm through Arya's, leading her out of the tea room. “Sorry about the hug and the sobbing,” she started again, much quieter this time. “Probably just these damned pregnancy hormones. You know the other day, the ticket officer in the subway looked at me funny when I couldn't find my monthly pass quick enough and I almost punched his stupid face in!” She didn't have time to ask Arya if she could believe it, she was already practically doubled over laughing.

Sansa couldn't control the smile on her face as they made their way to the rental car, continuing to crack Arya, and then her own mother, up with tales of her raging hormones and ridiculous reactions to everyday things. Everything went fine, she thought, watching the tall downtown buildings whiz by as Catelyn drove nervously through the city traffic. It was perfect. The games were perfect, the decorations were perfect, all of it. The back of the SUV was filled almost to the point that Catelyn couldn't see out the rear window. It didn't matter. For the first time in a very, very long time she felt the same support from her family that she had always had the first eighteen years of her life. Perfect. Minutes later, Arya was slumped over with her head resting on Sansa's side, sleeping, and she was leaned over even farther, eyes closed, resting on Margaery. She wasn't able to see her mother looking back at the two of them in the rear view mirror and smiling to herself.

XxXxXxX

Three Weeks Later

Catelyn Lyanna Stark-Tyrell, soon to be affectionately called Katie, came into the world on October 15th in a way that could've been used to predict the way the rest of her life would go.

Unexpected, for she was a little over two weeks early.

A little bit rude, for Sansa had made the most un-ladylike squealing noise in her seat in the press rows at the back of the Westerosi parliament building when her water broke.

With much reveling and a slight bit of fanfare, for when the floor speaker abruptly stopped the proceedings and asked her what the matter was, and many of the bristly old politicians started yelling their congratulations when she yelled about her problem.

Outspoken, for the loud ambulance that made it ways to the hospital and the earth-shattering screams and cries that came both from mother and daughter. Later, Margaery would tell Sansa she'd never thought she could physically make noises that loud.

Luckily, there was an intern shadowing her that day, actually for the past couple of weeks, and the young man, Podrick Payne, grabbed Sansa's cell phone out of her purse, calling the ambulance with a surprising amount of calmness she'd never seen out of the young man whose nerves made her wonder if he could ever handle interviewing some bigwig, but not anymore. Immediately after he hung up with the emergency worker he called Margaery, who was luckily on her lunch break in the city after spending the morning with her coworkers in the Kingswood wetlands.

Upon arrival, she was chided by the doctors for not listening when they said she needed to be on bed rest the month before her due date because of the diabetes, or at least not working they'd stressed, and in an unexpected move Sansa had bucked her usual trend of listening and continued to go to work. She rationalized that her intern was with her and her job wasn't physically demanding anyways.

Despite all of the nausea, sleepless nights, strict diet, insulin checks, and everything else that Katie had put her through for what seemed like forever, it was all out of her system by the time she saw fit to enter the world. Sansa was checked into the hospital at one in the afternoon, Margaery arrived a half hour later, dressed in her field gear, rubber boats and waders, and Katie was loudly announcing herself by four.

There were no issues, no complications, the doctors weren't even concerned with her weight. Once all of the parents had been called and Katie had been cleaned up, Margaery crawled into the hospital bed with Sansa, who was leaning on her side, watching Katie sleep in the wheeled crib pulled all the way against the bed.

 _Your mom was right, you know_ , she thought. _About how I'd feel once I met you. You probably got some harsh vibes off me for the past nine months but I promise I'm not like that, not really. You were just, well, a bit trying, that's all._

She woke up in the middle of the night, a note on the table from Margaery saying that she loved her, little Katie, was proud of her, and would be back at the hospital at 9am sharp to take the two of them home, after squaring away some things at the lab. She explained that Sansa had fallen asleep about a half hour after dinner and the attending nurse thought it might just be better to let her rest instead of wake her up for a goodbye.

She laid there in the dark for a few minutes, noticing that the clock on the bedside table read a quarter past three, and realizing that she probably wasn't going to fall back asleep for a while. In the rush of getting her to the hospital from the Parliament building, Margaery had come straight from the Kingwood wetland area, driving the SUV that belonged to the lab, so the hospital bag that she had painstakingly prepped was still sitting at home. She grabbed her purse off the hook on the wall, flipped on the bedside light, and dug through the little belongings she had with her to try and find something to occupy herself with for a little while. _The shops on the first floor are all closed, or else I'd go try to buy a magazine or something... and it's too late to go down to the nursery._ She sighed, pulling out one of those little crossword books from airport bookstores, but shoved it back inside when she hit something hard and plastic. She was surprised to pull out a cassette tape, but once she turned it over and read the handwriting, she instantly remembered. _The baby mix-tape that Arya gave me at the shower. I can't believe I haven't had a chance to listen yet, it's just been so hectic with work and getting the baby's room – no, Katie's room ready,_ she corrected herself, smiling though no one was around.

She felt around a bit more in her large bag, hissing a “yes” under her breath and pulling out her Walkman and headphones. _I knew I kept these in hear for a reason. That'll teach the rest of the copy room to tease me about how big my purse is._ Pressing the open button, she put the tape in and quickly close the lid, and hit the play button, making a loud clacking noise.

There was no part of Sansa that had an inkling about what songs would be on the cassette. She pulled out the little list of paper where the song list would normally be written down, but found only gel-pen doodles from Arya. _Such is the life of the art school student._

The music started and she was flooded with nursery rhymes from her childhood. The memories of her mother singing them to her were a little fuzzy, but she clearly remembered singing them to her younger siblings and her cousin Robert when he'd visit. Next there were a couple of sing-song lullabies about the Mother or the Father, quite possibly the cheesiest of the cheesy songs that Arya could've picked. It suddenly struck her though, that she couldn't figure out she got these songs on the cassette. _I've never heard a radio station that plays the Mother's Hymn_ , she wondered until a very familiar voice came into her ears.

“So by now, I assume that you've started to wonder how I taped these past couple songs. That's because, my dearest Sansa, I am an awesome younger sister. Lucky for you, the children's section of the local library has a music collection. Big surprise, none of these chart-toppers were checked out.”

Sansa laughed. _Leave it to Arya to put her two cents in everything._ That was the last of the lullabies and it soon moved into more popular songs, or at least songs that were popular at some point in time. Every couple of songs Arya would pop on again and say something that would make Sansa laugh, remember little parts of their childhood, and realize that even though the baby was out that the hormones had not instantly stopped pumping through her system. _Arya must have had to go to the library every other day to get all these songs on here. None of this is what she or Gendry listen to._

She soon fell back asleep, listening to Axl Rose sing 'Sweet Child of Mine', Whitney Houston belting out 'I'm Your Baby Tonight', or maybe some old classic like 'Baby, I Love Your Way.' When she woke up a couple hours later, a bit of sunlight had started to stream through the windows and the cassette had more than finished. It was just after seven, and she remembered the nurse from yesterday saying that was when she could come back down to the nursery. There was a terrycloth robe on the back of the bathroom door, probably the only amenity that the upgraded maternity room offered, but she shrugged it on over the scrubs she was wearing. She stopped short of the door and doubled back to the bed to grab her Walkman, putting the headphones on and holding the rest in her hand in the robe pocket.

Unsure of where she had left off, she started the tape again from the beginning, fast-forwarding through the songs she could remember as she made her way to the nursery. She stopped at one point and heard Arya's voice.

“Me here again. Bet you're real glad that Gendry's stereo has a microphone,” she said with a bit of a chuckle. “Huh, what's that? Dammit, Gendry, I'm recording Sansa's present! Shut up!” There was a very disgruntled sigh after that. “Gendry says hi. Anyways, I know you've had a pretty shit go at pregnancy so far, and I know that sucks and all, but everyone is positive you'll make a great mom and no matter what you're feeling right now, the second you meet my new niece or nephew it'll be all worth it. Most of the songs have been just for fun, but I wanted to give you that really captures this... so yea. Here it is.”

She finished up her walk to the nursery, finding Katie in her little crib easily. Closest row of cribs, third from the right. A nurse recognized her and nodded her approval as Sansa lifted a sleeping Katie out of the crib, walked over, and took a seat on one of the couches. Arya finished her little commentary and the next song started playing.

She recognized it right away, it'd been super popular on the radio in the beginning of the year, but it wasn't until the chorus started that Sansa realized the message behind why Arya had recorded this song.

_I'll be better when I'm older_

_I'll be the greatest fan of your life_

She wasn't sure she'd ever heard something more true in her life.


	7. Because the Night Belongs to Us

**Chapter 7: Because the Night Belongs to Us (New Year's Eve, 1993)**

 

Margaery knew even then that when she would look back on the Winter Solstice break of 1993 that it would rank up amongst some of the best she'd ever had. The weather had been unseasonably cold once December finally made its way to Highgarden, which was normally something that Margaery would balk at and complain daily about to whoever was unfortunate enough to be within earshot, but after seeing how excited Sansa would get when the weather reporter on the evening news delivered the news about chances of snow there was no way that she could be annoyed. It was like watching a child receive the birthday present they'd been waiting for all year long. She'd ventured to the local camping store, bought some long underwear, snow pants, and the silliest knitted cap complete with a yarn poof on top, and joined Sansa and her housemates in a snowball fight on the campus green.

 

It was one of the hardest things that Margaery had ever done, charging herself with the task of remaining just friends with Sansa. A month earlier, the two of them had been making dinner for the co-op house in its large kitchen, when she casually asked if Sansa if she would like to spend the break in Highgarden with her instead of returning to Winterfell. She had heard Sansa mention a few days prior that her parents were going on vacation for New Years, sending her two youngest brothers to spend time with their uncle and great-uncle in Riverrun, and knew that Robb and the guys were already planning "the biggest party Winterfell has ever seen," or so they said. She was completely caught off guard when Sansa immediately agreed, excitedly nodding her head, looking over at Margaery from the other side of the kitchen, covered in flour from the biscuits she was working on. All of her willpower was used in that moment to hold her back from wiping the flour off Sansa's face, from reaching over to push her against the fridge and kiss her senseless, from begging her to be with her and never leave, or all three, in that order, if she truly got her way.

 

They'd spent a good amount of time during Winter Break simply enjoying the slower side of Highgarden, with the majority of the student body back home they were able to get into their favorite brunch spot without the Sunday morning line, as well as get drinks at the local piano bar with the townies but without drunk students yelling the words, and were actually able to sing along.

 

The first Saturday of break was Sansa's last hockey game of the semester and while Margaery feigned being under the weather and unable to attend, she gathered together her brothers, the rest of the remaining house mates and her friends, as well as her most spirited Highgarden sweatshirt, surprising Sansa with her own cheering section, a rowdy crowd of almost thirty people sitting at center ice against the glass. She could see the red embarrassment on Sansa's face and knew it would almost match her hair if it wasn't braided up and tucked inside her helmet. Highgarden won the game 3 to 1, with team rookie Sansa scoring one of the goals, but even more surprisingly landing herself in the penalty box for unnecessary roughness. Margaery had never attended any sporting event at Highgarden in her two and a half years there, but she felt ridiculously proud watching Sansa help her team win, as well as ridiculously turned on watching her shrug her gloves off in one fell swoop and lunge at the enemy forward, like she'd been in hockey brawls a hundred times over. They celebrated the win afterwards alongside the rest of the team, managing to pack Kneeling Man Inn to the brim and eating them out of pizza and bread sticks.

 

Sansa spent a good amount of the first week of break working full eight-hour shifts at the coffee shop. Normally her shifts were six hours at the most, but since so many of her co-workers, as well as the full-time salaried workers, had put in for vacation time around the holidays, she'd volunteered to pick up their shifts and make some extra money over the break, especially with the promise from her manager that there was a good chance she could be promoted to shift supervisor after the start of the new year. They were used to spending most of the day apart because of their classes, Sansa's work schedule, and her research schedule in the horticulture lab, but with the lab closed during the vacation, Margaery spent her time doing some much needed deep cleaning at the co-op house and finally catching up on some reading, but after she'd spent all the time she could stand on that, she bundled up in her coat, knowing she'd get mocked by Sansa for her large coat in what the cold-blooded girl still deemed warm weather, picked up that day's copy of the Highgarden Tribune and the Kings Landing Times, and sat at the coffee shop during Sansa's shift, working on the crosswords, reading the arts section, and simply enjoying being in the same five hundred or so square feet as Sansa, even if they weren't interacting.

 

"I'm so not ready for full-time work," Sansa said, lazily walking through the back door, dropping her backpack on the ground and falling into the couch next to Margaery after they walked back to the co-op when her shift was done. It was just after five pm on Friday and she knew that Sansa had went to work at six that morning, staying after eight hours when one of her coworkers called in to say her car wouldn't start and that she'd be late for her shift.

 

"Oh, it's not that bad. At least you come back from work smelling like espresso. After an all-nighter at the hort lab I've got to be pretty rank," Margaery replied. It was true, Sansa did indeed smell like espresso when she returned, along with the less pleasant, slightly damp smell that came from steamed milk spilling on her uniform polo. "Besides, once you get your journalism internship next year, you won't have to worry about this. And it's paid," she added in a sing-song voice, adding some extra syllables to the last word.

 

Sansa nodded, not looking like Margaery's attempts at encouragement had helped any.

 

"Alright, Miss Highgarden Barista of the Year, time to stop sulking. You're gonna take a shower, and then I've got reservations for dinner and tickets to the movies."

 

She felt amazing as she watched Sansa's eyes light up at the thought of a night out. "Mags, you don't have to do all that. I'd be satisfied just sitting here watching TGIF and getting something delivered." 

 

"Nonsense," Margaery replied. "While I fully understand your love of Full House and Boy Meets World, all the shows are on hiatus. So," she paused, standing up to place herself in front of Sansa and grabbing both her hands, "Off your ass and in the shower. I'll be waiting."

 

She pulled her up from the couch and pushed her upstairs. She'd learned over the past few months that the restaurant scene in Winterfell was seriously lacking and since Sansa had never had Meereenese before, she'd made reservations for them both this evening and bought tickets for some new drama movie that was opening that evening. She wasn't entirely sure what it was about, but almost every movie that Sansa wanted to watch was a drama, so Margaery figured there was no way this could go badly.

 

She was wrong. Well, halfway wrong. Dinner was amazing, Sansa loved the food and the restaurant even had a small troupe from Meereen performing traditional dances on a small stage off to the side. The movie started off fine, although admittedly Margaery was more interested in the girl next to her than the story, thinking of ways she could brush her shoulder against Sansa's or touch her hand making it seem by accident, instead of watching the movie which looked to be just another lawyer drama story. She couldn't say how far into the movie they were, but at some point she had gotten up to use the bathroom and give herself a pep talk in the mirror, only to return to the back row of the theater to sit down next to Sansa, popcorn tub clutched in her hands and crying her eyes out.

 

Margaery froze for a second, unsure of what to do, before taking the popcorn tub out of Margaery's hands and setting it on the theater floor. She quickly wrapped her arms around Sansa, pulling her into her shoulder and running her hands through her long hair in an attempt to calm her down. She noticed a few other people in the theater had broken out their tissues during the movie, but many others were huffing and sending her annoyed looks because of the noise Sansa was making. _Time to get the hell outta here_ , Margaery thought. _As much as I'd love to sit and cuddle with Sansa I think she's had enough for the night._

 

"Come on, Sans," she whispered, grabbing Sansa's purse off the back of the seat and putting it around her shoulder next to her own. "We can finish it when it comes out on video if you want, 'kay?" Sansa sniffled and nodded against her shoulder, letting Margaery guide her down the steps and outside. Once they were out, the cold air seemed to sober Sansa up considerably and she started to apologize.

 

"Sorry for ruining the night you planned. I really thought I could keep it together in there, but gods, Mags, I can't believe that people would get treated the way Beckett did... even his boss at the trial trying to say he wasn't a victim. You were in the bathroom when the trial parts started and I just lost it," Sansa explained, taking another step closer to Margaery as she leaned up against the side of the car, reaching out to place her hand on Margaery's arm. "I would like to watch it again and see the ending, if you'll watch it with me. I can't guarantee I won't end up like this again though."

 

Margaery stood up straight from her position leaning against the car, locking eyes with Sansa and reaching out for her again, the same way she had done minutes earlier in the theater. "Of course we can watch the ending together when the VHS comes out. I'll get it from that rental place on Third as soon as it comes out. Now," she said, backing up out of the hug and rubbing her hands up and down Sansa's over her sweater, "Let's get home. I think we can still catch Step by Step if we hurry, yea?"

 

By the time they got back, Sansa was nodding off in the passenger seat already and they'd missed any TV they wanted to watch, so Sansa was tucked into the wall side of Margaery's double bed, quickly falling asleep, while Margaery lay on her left side on her half of the bed, playing the night over in her head, sleep evading her as she replayed all the ways that the night could've gone better, even though she was selfishly glad she got to be the one to comfort Sansa.

 

A few days later, with the issue at the movie theater behind them, they both packed their bags and drove as a group with Margaery's brothers to the old Tyrell Estate, nestled in the hills just outside of the city. She was excited to see her grandmother, as well as all of her extended family, but still somewhat nervous to see how Sansa acted in this situation. They'd talked for hours about the wealth the Stark family used to have, the life that Sansa had been used to living, how hard it was to adjust to what was normal for everyone else, and then how she felt that after moving out on her own, that she was finally not missing her old lifestyle, one which was very close to how the festivities would be at the Tyrell New Years Ball.

 

When they arrived at Margaery's childhood home, her grandmother was waiting under the overhang above the large circular drive, dressed in a dark green, very conservative two-piece skirt suit, a matching old-fashioned pillbox style hat placed _just_ _so_ on her head. She watched as the matriarch Olenna Tyrell reached out to welcome Sansa Stark to their house, politely kissing her cheek and setting her hand in the crook of the much taller girl's elbow to guide her into the house, waving with her free hand for the footman to grab the suitcases from the car and Margaery knew there would be nothing at all to worry about.

 

There was a bit of a schedule for them to follow once they arrived at Highgarden, first being whisked off to fittings for the evening gowns they purchased for the party a few weeks prior. After having not much of a set schedule at all since classes ended, Margaery was glad to have a bit of structure, and they luckily ended up with enough downtime the first evening for Margaery and Loras to give Sansa the grand tour of the sprawling house.

 

When the guests started to arrive the next evening for the ball, Margaery realized how silly she had been worrying about how Sansa would fit in. It was perfect. She made small talk with all the Tyrells and Redwynes who approached her, bent down in her cocktail length dark green dress to pick up the young children that ran around underfoot, dancing around to the band with a toddler on her hip. Later in the party, Margaery found herself watching from the sidelines, nursing a drink and getting her fill of what her cousins Elinor and Megga thought was the hottest gossip out of Hightower Prep, trying her best to seem interested.

 

"Margaery, dear, do you know where that lovely new friend of yours has run off too?" Her grandmother Olenna had saddled up to her side abruptly, strangely silent on her feet still for her age. Margaery knew she was always her grandmother's favorite and saw no problem with that, the feeling was very mutual, and she looked at her thankfully as both her cousins walked off, probably looking for their next victim.

 

"Last I saw she was busy talking to Renly and Loras," she answered, picking up a clean plate off the buffet table and filling it with strawberries and about a half-dozen lemon macaroons. She made a quick scan of the ballroom, filled almost to capacity with all the Tyrells, Redwynes, both sides of the Fossoway clan, and other cousins, friends, and business partners of the Tyrells, but she saw no sign of Sansa. She spotted Renly and Loras dancing off to the side where the band was set up, but no Sansa. "But it looks like she's not with them anymore. Don't worry, Grandma, I'll go find her. She probably just got lost trying to make her way to the bathroom. Gods know this house has enough of them."

 

"Could you? Your Aunt Mina has just been blabbing non-stop about wanting to meet her," she said, rolling her eyes and looking positively appalled. "Apparently she knew Catelyn Stark from when she did that semester at Riverrun, something like that. I'm pretty sure I stopped listening halfway through."

 

"Well, Aunt Mina's never been one for brevity, Grandma, you know that." She kissed her quickly on the cheek before starting her search for Sansa.

 

It was about fifteen minutes before midnight when Margaery finally wandered outside to one of the balconies overlooking the grounds of the estate, effectively giving up on her search for Sansa. She'd been through all three floors of the Tyrell house, numerous sitting rooms, libraries, guest rooms, bathrooms, even searched the kitchens, pantries, and family bedrooms. _I guess if she wants to hide from me then she's certainly come to the right house. I think we left poor Garlan hiding for three hours once during hide-and-seek._

 

She made her way a few more steps out from the house before she noticed Sansa sitting on one of the benches off to the side. If she'd stay a few feet shorter Margaery probably would never have found her there.

 

XXXX

 

Sansa looked up, just enough to see Margaery walking over from the double doors that led out to the balcony. They were over the top of the large ballroom below and she could still hear the music from the band playing. _I should've known she'd find me here. It is the house she grew up in after all._

 

“Hey, there you are. What're ya doing out here? It's almost midnight,” she said, smoothing out her dress and sitting down next to Sansa on the bench, but she barely looked up to acknowledge her. “Grandma Olenna sent me on a grand mission to find you. I thought you were still with Loras and Renly but Aunt Mina was wondering where you were. That's when I realized you weren't in the ballroom anymore. I think I've been in almost every room in the house looking for you.”

 

“Sorry. I didn't mean to make anyone worry. I just haven't been around this many people, new people that is, in such a long time. I think I've told the same introduction a half million times by now, and if one more person looks at me and says 'Stark... as in...?' I swear to gods I might literally explode. Guess it's good I came outside for some air, huh? I just hate knowing that on the inside they're all judging me for something that happened when I was like fifteen and that I had nothing to do with.” She heard Margaery's sigh and knew what was coming next. She instantly reached over and pulled both of Sansa's hands out of her lap, holding them in between her own and lightly rubbing the top one. She had been in the habit of doing that lately and it always left Sansa with the feeling of Margaery's hands on hers for too long afterwards, not to mention she didn't realize how cold it was outside until Margaery's gloved hands found their way onto hers.

 

“I know it’s gotta be tough for you, this being your first time away from your family... Listen, I’m not really sure how to say this, but I want you to know that I’m really, truly happy that we’re friends, and I’m glad you’ve let me into your life.”

 

“Mags, I—” 

 

“No, I mean it, Sansa. We would be like sisters, you and I.”

 

 _Really? Now? Is this the conversation I think we're going to have?_ Sansa thought, groaning audibly.

 

“…but what if I don’t want to be like sisters?”

 

The instant the words came out of her mouth Sansa knew that she hadn't worded it correctly. She saw the flush of embarrassment and surprise on Margaery's face and watched her eyes widen.

 

“Oh, gods, Sans, I shouldn’t have said that. I know you’ve got a sister already, but I thought you weren’t super close, so I just thought that… I mean, metaphorically—”

 

“Margaery!” Sansa shouted, perhaps a bit too loud, but there was no one else outside to here them, thank the Seven. “Would you just chill out for a sec? There’s a reason why I don’t want to be like sisters.” _Dear gods, she's freaking out_ , Sansa thought, taking her hands and placing them on either side of Margaery's face, she turned her towards herself, hoping the touch might calm her or at least snap her out of her rambling.

 

“What? But I just want to make sure you know that—”

 

 _Ugh, that didn't do anything_ , she thought, letting out a large breath, exasperated with the direction this conversation was going in.

 

“Seven hells,” Sansa sighed. “Do I have to everything around here?”

 

The look she got back was still one filled with confusion _. I guess so,_ she thought, and made the decision to pull Margaery's face towards hers quickly, having every intention to kiss her chastely, hoping that it would give her some sort of idea of what she was trying to say without being interrupted again. She had intended this to be chaste, to pull away before Margaery did, but the instant she finally felt her lips touch Margaery's all her intentions of being chaste were gone. She made herself push out all her emotions into Margaery, praying to the Maiden for her feelings to be recognized, praying to the Warrior to give her the strength to walk away with her head held high if this ended up being a huge mistake.

 

She felt Margaery still for a second, maybe out of surprise, before she responded, tilting her head to soundly return the kiss. A second later, Sansa felt hands firmly placed on her lower back, anchoring her in place, warm through the fabric of her dress, and she finally moved her own hands to where she really wanted them, one light around Margaery's waist and the other solidly clutching the curled brown hair behind her neck as she found herself smiling into the kiss.

 

Sansa pulled back first, only an inch or so to allow her to rest her forehead against Margaery's, eager to see what her reaction to this was. They were still too close to really see each other, but she could hear her taking deep breaths and see the clouds forming from her warm breath hitting the cold air.

 

"You know," Margaery said softly, lightly running her fingers from the shoulder of Sansa's dress down her hand and back up again, then moving her head farther away to finally look at her. "I don't think I want to be like sisters either," she continued, that mischievous grin that all the Tyrells she met seemed to have down pat playing across her face, infectious enough that Sansa couldn't help but return it.

 

"I've wanted to do that for months," Sansa confessed quietly.

 

She watched Margaery cock her head sideways. "Why didn't you?"

 

"Why didn't _you_?"

 

"Wasn't sure how you felt," Margaery replied right away. "I didn't want to assume and misinterpret what I thought you felt and end up messing up our friendship." She stood up, offering her hand out to Sansa, who quickly took it. "Let's get back inside. It's almost midnight."

 

Sansa still wasn't sure what this meant for their relationship, if they were still just friends, or maybe more, or maybe much, much more, but for the first time since she realized what she wanted her friendship with Margaery to become she felt calm. She wasn't nervous about where it was going or afraid of what anyone might say. There was a lavish party going on downstairs, with a fabulous band playing amazing music, dinner and finger foods prepared by professional chefs, and the group of people she'd met in the past four months that she was bold enough to call her new best friends. Best of all, she was lucky enough to be getting pulled down there back to the party by the most astonishing person she'd ever met, who for some damned reason that Sansa thought she'd never quite understand, seemed to feel the same way about her.

 

They walked, hand-in-hand still, down the large staircase that led from the third floor back down the second floor where the ballroom was. The doors to the ballroom where held open, lush green fabric curtains pulled back, fastened with golden velvet ties, and Sansa stopped short of the door a few feet when she saw the huge crowd again. Margaery turned her head, smiling as she gave Sansa's hand a comforting squeeze, and led her into the ballroom, the crowd seeming to part slightly as she led them out to the middle of the dance floor. _This was her house after all, they all know who she is_ , Sansa remembered.

 

The band finished the upbeat jazzy song they had been playing and settled into a more comforting song, Sansa noticed the servers in their black and white suits holding trays of champagne, circling about and passing out tall crystal glasses out to everyone. Before she knew it, Renly and Loras had found their way over to them, Loras clearly well on his way to being wasted, red-faced and smiling, curly hair everywhere and leaning on Renly, playing the responsible party of the two. Seconds later, Willas, Garlan, his wife Leonette, along with a few of their friends and cousins joined, and she and Margaery were both handed glasses of champagne by Willas, full to the brim so they must not have come from the waiters.

 

The brass instruments and guitars slowly faded as the drummer began a drumroll, and Sansa heard someone, most likely someone too drunk to remember the evening, yell "Countdown!" loud enough to be heard in Dorne, directing everyone's attention toward the over-sized clock above the fireplace. She raised her glass, looking at Margaery, glass raised as if saluting the clock, noticing the sincere and excited look on her face as she counted down to the arrival of the New Year surrounded by her family and friends, a tradition which Sansa figured was celebrated similarly in this room by the Tyrells for hundreds of years. For a second, she thought of her own family, Robb, Jon, and Theon hosting a raging party while their parents were gone, Arya trying to prove she could hold her own amongst the boys, and she began to feel a bit left out, until she found Margaery and Loras wrapping their arms around her from opposite sides. _No, this is where I belong tonight._

 

She stretched her right hand out, holding her glass out as far as she could, finishing the countdown in time with everyone else, clinking glasses and cheering, she was pulled over to her right as Renly and Loras both kissed her cheeks at the same time. She grinned and scrunched her shoulders up towards her ears, Loras' hair tickling the side of her face, when she suddenly felt a small hand firmly on her waist pulling her away.

 

Her hair fanned out as she spun her head around to see Margaery. "I think I'll take this from here, boys," she said, fingers splayed halfway between Sansa's waist and hips, pulling her away from Renly and Loras to press her close against herself.

 

"Happy New Year, Sansa," she whispered, pushing herself up on her tiptoes, making Sansa shiver when she felt her warm breath close to ear and a kiss placed just at the start of her jaw. She still felt Margaery's hand on her hip as she moved away from the side of her head, flashed that damned Tyrell smile again at Sansa, and kissed her. Sansa hoped that what Margaery was putting into this kiss was what she was able to communicate with her first. It was surprisingly gentle, yet possessive since there was no hiding it from this crowd, and though she didn't think she would, Sansa loved that the crowd was around them, surrounding them with everyone else's excitement.

 

 _Yes_ , Sansa thought, _this night belongs to us._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been waiting to publish this one! It's a bit cheesy, but oh well.   
> The song in my head for this Because the Night, originally by Patti Smith, but in 1993 10,000 Maniacs did an awesome live cover on MTV Unplugged. I suggest you find that video on Youtube if you're not familiar with the song.
> 
> I don't have the next chapter written so it might be a little while. I'm thinking this will be about ten chapters long in the end, but who knows?


	8. A Girl Like You

**Chapter 8: A Girl Like You (May/June 1995)**

 

From outside, there was the crinkling sound of metal making contact with metal followed by a loud car door slam, then angry, unintelligible yelling and swearing. This was the first thing that brought Sansa out of her task-oriented mindset in hours. Today would be the second time she'd moved in her whole life, and while the idea was still a little bit weird to her, packing had never stressed her out the way it did some people. She enjoyed going through her things, reminiscing as she packed each item away carefully, able to quietly take stock, mentally organizing her life to prepare it for the next chapter. It even extended to helping others move - when Uncle Benjen moved and especially when Robb and Jon moved down to HPU a few years back. With everything that had happened, it had been a great relief to help both her brothers go through all their things, despite getting sidetracked over and over again by all the things from their childhood they'd forgotten about.

 

She heard footsteps coming up the stairs to her room and when they stopped, she saw Ygritte hanging just outside the door, hands wrapped around the side of the door frame, hair a wild mess that was being held back by a wide headband that wasn't exactly doing a stellar job.

 

"Before you ask, everyone is alive down there. Your brothers and that awful Greyjoy ass are just yellin' at each other now since he walked your filing cabinet into the bed of the pick-up," she explained, shrugging a bit of apology and then coming the rest of the way into Sansa's room. "Didn't even leave a scratch but they're goin' on like it's the end of the flipping world. It's just an old pick-up, not like it's that nice car Mags has got. Anyways, we've got everything big that's going with you, so we're all ready for your clothes in my car. Those all set?"

 

Sansa nodded and handed over two suitcases to Ygritte, did a quick once-over of the room, and helped carry another suitcase and a duffel bag downstairs to the pick-up. There was just enough room in the small cab for the suitcases and Jon, Theon, and Robb crammed into the front bench seat of the Ranger. Sansa hopped into the front seat of Ygritte's car, where Margaery was already seated in back. She passed the duffel bag to Margaery, who set it to the side and quickly reached forward, grabbing Sansa's hand and lacing their fingers together.

 

"You sad to see it go?"

 

Sansa looked out the window as Ygritte began to pull away from the house, watching it grow smaller in the background. She shook her head. "Sad? As if," she answered. "Besides, we're only moving like two miles away, it's not like I'll never be back here again... so no, I'm not sad at all to be leaving here. It means I get to move in with you."

 

Margaery smiled, leaning further forward to kiss Sansa's hand.

 

"Gross me out guys," Ygritte said, winking at them. "Could you two get any more disgusting?"

 

"Oh, you're lucky there's not enough room for Sansa to climb back there," Margaery answered laughing, "because I'd definitely try."

 

All three of them laughed at that, only to fall into more laughter at the next red light, when the boys pulled up beside them and Theon revved the engine of the pick-up, only to mess up shifting, stall the engine, and get left behind at the light, probably getting berated to all seven hells and back by Robb and Jon for making them look bad. The rest of the move went smoothly, with minimal arguing between the boys about which way this bookshelf should go up the stairs, or who should walk up first, or what the most efficient way to move a desk around a corner was. Margaery stopped Sansa in her tracks on her first load of items up the stairs, insisting that she put them aside so she could be carried across the threshold. The group took this as an invitation to watch, Margaery reminding them all that it was not a spectator sport as she first tried to pick up Sansa bridal style, gave up, and ended up giving her a piggy-back ride through the door as everyone else whistled and clapped.

 

It took the rest of the afternoon to get the apartment furniture situated as best they could. The following week and weekend would be a blur, packed with the extended Tyrell family in town for Margaery's graduation, the last of finals for the year for Sansa, as well as Arya coming to move in and start her 'suspiciously close to Gendry' art department job. As a bit of a last hurrah for the group before some of them went their separate ways, they wanted to go out, to a bar, or maybe dancing as Margaery always suggested, but exhaustion from moving called the shots, ending those plans. The group that had become family over the past two years, Robb, Jon, Ygritte, Theon, Gendry, Sansa, and Margaery, found themselves in the same place as always - the couches of the Stark house family room - with takeout pizza from Kneeling Man and beers from Highgarden Brewery, watching Reality Bites on VHS, and tossing popcorn at Theon when he wouldn't shut up about how cute Winona Ryder was.

 

XxXxX

 

It had been a few weeks earlier, the beginning of April. Margaery's graduation date was slowly approaching, well, quickly approaching actually, especially when Sansa watched how stressed her girlfriend was getting about her impending finals. Since the semester started, Margaery had been talking about moving out of the Growing Strong Co-op house and getting an apartment, maybe something that was a little more in the downtown area, a little closer to the main building for her Masters program, and a lot more quiet than living in a house with thirty people where you had to share everything. Earlier in the day, Margaery had called over to Sansa's house to, rather excitedly, let her know that the apartment complex she's had her eyes on lately had an early move out and the unit that would become hers was ready much earlier than expected. The previous occupant had moved out three days earlier and they'd already finished working on repairs and steaming the carpets.

 

They both had early classes that day, and took Margaery's little red Mercedes downtown, this time with Sansa driving. Margaery had declared her safe to drive over a year ago, but despite that, Sansa still felt nervous driving that particular car in even the little bit of traffic that Highgarden offered. _It doesn't help that she refers to the car as 'Cherry Baby' half the time or washes it more often than her bio lab coats_. She was glad of the lessons since it had given her just more excuses to take drives around The Reach with Margaery, even if with those lessons came Theon telling her over and over again, with that stupid smug Greyjoy smile she knew he shared with his sister she'd met once, that he'd be more than happy to teach her how to 'drive stick.'

 

After stopping by quickly at the apartment building to grab the keys from the office manager and signing some paperwork saying that she in fact had said keys, Margaery had decided they needed to celebrate with a stroll around downtown, possibly stopping for ice cream before heading back to continue studying for her finals.

 

"...so, did I hear correctly that Arya is moving in with you guys early?" Margaery asked.

 

Sansa had not been looking forward about talking about this topic to anyone - which included Margaery, Arya, her brothers, and especially not her mother who would be joining her father in a few short weeks to help Arya move her things. There should've been an open room at the house since Theon was finally graduating and moving home to Pyke to help out with the family's shipping business, a decision which he hated to make, but ultimately seemed out of his control. If she was truthful, Sansa was not looking forward to seeing him leave. She wouldn't say it out loud to anyone, but they were close, they somehow understood each other. At that point, Arya moving to campus was a non-issue, until Gendry somehow ended up being next in line for Theon's room, an arrangement made between the two that they hadn't bothered to mention until recently. Not surprising to anyone, right around the time that it was decided Gendry would take Theon's ground floor room, Arya announced she had found a summer job in the art department, cataloging student portfolios or something equally as mindless as that, and that she'd need to move in sooner, right after high school graduation.

 

"Yea, you heard right. Same weekend that you graduate, so that'll be a fun-filled weekend of family," Sansa replied sarcastically, taking Margaery's hand. It had taken Sansa a while to get used to being affectionate at all towards Margaery in public, but after a while with only a few obnoxious comments and some rude stares, she started to believe it when Margaery said that Highgarden had always been pretty tolerant. "I'm pretty sure that Gendry has had something to do with getting her that job. It's in his department and last time I spoke to my dad he said that Arya's been on the phone in her room a lot lately. My bet's that those two'll totally get together, like, a minute after our parents leave the driveway... if they haven't already."

 

"Hold up - she's not staying in his room, is she? You're dad is pretty cool and all, but I don't think he's quite that progressive to let his eighteen year old freshman daughter bunk with some guy that's almost a senior, no matter how much of a gentleman he is."

 

"Honestly? I've got less of a clue than you do, Mags, but I've got a sinking feeling that a few weeks from now we'll be shoving another creaky bed frame into my room. At least he's got his own room downstairs for whenever they want to..." her voice trailed off, but Margaery got the idea from the less-than-pristine hand gesture Sansa made, knowing all the jokes from Theon must be rubbing off on her a bit. They passed a trash can and Sansa reached over, throwing the paper cup and plastic spoon from her ice cream away. "It's just so freaking difficult. I really do love Arry and I hate to whine, but I don't want to share my room with her anymore. Maybe if I had someone else that wanted to live with me," she added quickly and quietly, just above a whisper.

 

"Sansa, wait a sec," Margaery said, stopping right where she was on the sidewalk and grabbing on to Sansa's hand to stop her as well. "I know I'm not usually as quick at picking up on things as you are, but are you trying to ask if you can move in with me?"

 

Sansa looked down at her feet, as if the Keds she wore were very interesting all of a sudden, and when she looked up at her girlfriend again there was a blushing smile across her face, streaked with the faintest hint of terror. She opened her mouth and shut it twice before all her thoughts came sliding out. "Well... I was -- I was just thinking that since Arya is moving here and she can't have Theon's room because of Gendry and I'd have to share my room with her so I'd always be at your apartment anyways and --"

 

"Whoa now, babe. Calm it down. You're rambling, run-on sentences and everything," She guided her over to sit down on a stone bench that surrounded one of the trees that lined the downtown street. "So, let's start again. You'd like to move in with me?"

 

Sansa nodded. _Sweet sacred mother, more than I've ever wanted anything in my life_ , she thought.

 

"Then why didn't you suggest it?

 

"I don't know..."

 

"Come on, Sans, we need to talk about these kinds of things when they come up. Is it because I didn't ask you?"

 

"Well, a little bit, but I guess I just didn't want to seem like I was rushing things, ya know? I don't want to be that lesbian that shows up on your front lawn with a U-Haul!" She ran her free hand through her hair, forgetting that she'd braided it that morning and managing to mess it up, then trying not to let that bother her too.

 

"Sansa, we've been together for almost two and a half years, if you're going by U-Haul lesbian stereotypes I think we're practically married," Margaery laughed out loud at herself when she said that, and when she saw the small smile that looked like it was itching to emerge on Sansa's face she added, "Besides, it's a city apartment. No front lawn for you to park your U-Haul. But really, I should've made up my mind to do something about this sooner."

 

Margaery reached over, pulling Sansa in closer to her. She paused for a moment and pushed a bit of Sansa's hair back behind her ear, the part that she'd messed up seconds earlier, then pressed a kiss to her temple.

 

"What in the hells are you doing, babe?" Sansa asked, watching Margaery drop down onto her knees on the cement sidewalk, going through that giant slouchy bag she always carried.

 

After what seemed like forever, she pulled out a small paper envelope, which Sansa recognized from earlier at the apartment office, then sat in shock as well as a good amount of confusion, when Margaery brought up one knee, looking very intently at Sansa.

 

"Sansa Stark," Margaery started, pulling one of Sansa's hands from her lap and covering it with her own, "It's been over two years since we've been together, and for that amount of time you've made me the happiest and luckiest girl this side of the Narrow Sea. Neither of us are perfect people, but we're perfect for each other, and there is nothing I would like more than to wake up to you on the left side of my bed each morning." She paused, pulling out the key from the paper bag and holding it up in front of Sansa between her thumb and forefinger. "So, with that, Sansa Stark, will you do me the honor of not only continuing to be my amazing girlfriend, but to be my amazing girlfriend who lives with me?"

 

The most appropriate term to describe her at that moment was a deer in headlights, Sansa would later recall when asked by everyone back at the Stark house later that evening. _If a deer in headlights is capable of laughing, crying, and nodding their heads enthusiastically that yes, yes they'd love to move in with you, you dumb, perfect, amazing girl._ She'd covered her mouth with her hand, partially in shock, and partially because years of learning proper manners still had it drilled into her head that it was the polite thing to do instead of just let your jaw drop to catch flies. About six or seven passersby had stopped on the street to watch what was happening, probably thinking it was a marriage proposal instead of a "will you become my live-in girlfriend" proposal, but Sansa wouldn't have cared if all of Westeros was there watching this live on television. She quickly grabbed the key from Margaery's outstretched hand and let herself practically fall into her arms as she ended up kneeling next to her on the sidewalk.

 

"So, that's a yes, right?" Margaery asked, smiling such a huge smile that Sansa could practically feel it.

 

Sansa pulled back from Margaery for a second, letting her see the obvious eye roll. "Yes, Margaery. That's a yes, I'll move in with you. That's a yes, please can we move now? That's a yes, dear gods, I love you so can we go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and choose a comforter together?"

 

Margaery let go of her, standing to help her up and hand over her purse. "You've got it, first outing for our new apartment - Bed, Bath, and Beyond," she agreed, tossing her car keys over to Sansa with a smile a quick wink. "But you're driving."

 

XxXxX

 

All of their guests had finally left for the night, and Sansa closed the apartment door behind the last few stragglers, turning the deadbolt closed and locking the little chain link lock that Margaery insisted was definitely not necessary in this area of Highgarden. The housewarming party had been a huge success. Their apartment wasn't huge by any means, but Sansa had still let all the neighbors know there'd be people over and to expect some noise. It wasn't crazy, but it was just what they wanted - all their friends, good music, lots of food, dancing. Theon had driven back from Pyke for the night and Sansa, Robb, and Jon had watched as Gendry tried to tip-toe around his affections for Arya, who was hellbent on not doing the same.

 

Sansa let out an exhausted sigh, turned her back against the door, and let herself slide down to the carpet. She watched with a smile on her face as Margaery walked across from the living room over to the kitchen, picking up empty plastic cups and beer bottles on her way.

 

"I absolutely cannot believe that this is my life, Mags. Tonight was amazing," Sansa said, not realizing she'd actually said it aloud until she heard Margaery reply back to her from the kitchen.

 

"It's not over yet."

 

"What do you mean?" she replied back. She couldn't see Margaery, could only hear her rustling things around in the kitchen and closing various cupboards. A few seconds later, Margaery left the kitchen and walked over to look at Sansa, still sitting on the floor and leaning against the front door.

 

"Well," she started, first wiping her hands off on the back of her cut-off jean shorts before crouching down to be at eye level with Sansa. "I got down on one knee to ask you to move in, I piggy-backed you across the threshold, and we just finished having our big party... but we've yet to have our first dance."

 

"First dance? Mags, it's like, two-thirty in the morning, you've gotta be kidding me. I danced all night and now all I wanna do right now is go to bed and forget about cleaning up this mess until morning."

 

"Nope. We need this to make it perfect." She shot a smile at her as she walked over to the stereo, moving a couple more stray empty cups off the top of it. "Now where did that tape go..." she said to herself, then looked over and quickly grabbed a cassette case off the table."A-ha! Got it!" she announced, taking the cassette out of the case and putting it in the tray. She pushed play, and turned towards Sansa, who was still sitting on the floor against the front door. "Sansa Stark, I'm gonna need you to get off your ass and come dance with me."

 

Sansa shook her head and smiled, pushing herself up off the carpet. She made her way towards Margaery, took her hand, and pulled her into a waltz position, immediately going into the leading role she'd had to play many times in dance classes in order to teach some of the younger ones.

 

"No need to be that formal, babe," Margaery laughed as the intro the song started and Sansa found the rhythm and began to whirl her about the room. "It's a just a pop song, but I knew you'd love it."

 

"Why is it on cassette?" Sansa asked. "You never buy tapes anymore since you got the new stereo."

 

Margaery smiled like she had a secret, or knew something was up, and just couldn't wait for Sansa to figure things out. She took her hands out of the formal position, draped both around Sansa's shoulders, and slowed them until they were slow dancing like high schoolers, just swaying back and forth. "I heard it the other day, on that radio show that plays new songs... Listen. Never known a girl like you before? It's perfect."

 

"Margaery..."

 

"It's not out yet, so I bought a blank cassette on the drive home and played the radio all day, waiting for it to come on again so I could tape it for you," she explained, pulling Sansa in closer until she could kiss her neck, then rested her head on Sansa's shoulder for the rest of the song.

 

Sansa continued the slow swaying, absentmindedly drawing circles on Margaery's back through her t-shirt, and listened to the words knowing Margaery had spent quite a bit of time so that she could hear the song. It made sense immediately once listened to the lyrics, and it was true - she'd never known a girl like Margaery Tyrell before. She'd never had a girlfriend before, but all the other crushes she'd had couldn't ever compare to this. Sure, she understood that Margaery wasn't perfect - she was excellent at forgetting plans they'd made, procrastinating and then over-working herself with all-nighters in the biology lab, and in contrast to Sansa's realism she was ideal about the world, almost to a fault. On the other hand, Margaery had always been there for her, since the day they met - Margaery on her step ladder on the other side of the fence and Sansa sitting on the roof outside her window. She had challenged her, pushed her to do the things she seemed content just to daydream about, like applying for a summer intern spot at the Highgarden Tribune and trying out for the hockey team.

 

The song ended and pulled Sansa out of her thoughts. She looked down at Margaery, standing still with her head still on Sansa's shoulder, and smiled. "It was perfect, Mags. Thank you," she said.

 

Margaery lifted her head and yawned through what Sansa thought was a "I knew you'd love it," but it was difficult to tell. Sansa bent down and kissed her softly. "Come on, let's get you to bed before you fall asleep right here," Sansa said, giving Margaery a little push towards the hallway. "I'll get the lights."

 

As Margaery made her way to their room, Sansa turned off the kitchen lights, then paused at the stereo. She pressed the eject button for the cassette and replaced it into its case. _I've got a few ideas of what to add to you_ , Sansa thought, as she set it on top of a stack of CDs so it wouldn't get misplaced. _Tomorrow though, I've got better places to be right now_. She turned off the last light and headed to bed, realizing halfway there that she was already humming the song.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost a year between updates, my apologies. The song for this is Edwyn Collins' A Girl Like You, which is probably best known from the Empire Records soundtrack. 
> 
> Sorry for the lack of updates! Please enjoy :)


	9. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

**Ch 9:Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)**

**June 25, 2003, King's Landing General Hospital**

 

Sansa awoke with sore neck and the sound of daughter calling for her as the door to the hospital room burst open.

 

"Mummy! Mummy, mummy!" Ygritte followed behind her, carrying a large hobo style over her shoulders.

 

She sat up in the chair and quickly cracked her neck. "Calm down, wildling child. What is it?"

 

"Guess what?"

 

"What?" Sansa asked back, faking her surprise.

 

"Aunty Gritte thought it'd be a good idea to bring some pictures for Mom, to put in the room, that it'd make her happy when she wakes up," Katie explained, not noticing the look that her mother flashed at Ygritte and then Ygritte shrugging her shoulders. Jon's wife loved Katie, but even sometimes she was too much for her to handle. "So we looked for pictures, but I found something even better."

 

"Oh, you did now? And what's that?"

 

"I'll show you!" She jumped down from the chair, took the photo album that Ygritte had in her giant bag, and handed it to Sansa.

 

"Gods, I cannot believe you two found this. Your Mom made this for me when we moved to Kings Landing," she explained. "As something to hold the memories of all the good times we had in Highgarden."

 

Sansa got quiet, looking down at the worn cover of the baby clue scrapbook. In the bottom left side was a picture of Sansa, and the bottom right side had a picture of Margaery. They were two sides of one of the professional pictures from their wedding. Then, flipping over to the back cover, she saw the hand-written note in Margaery's handwriting, quoting lyrics from one of the songs she'd been obsessed with right around the time they moved from Highgarden to Kings Landing.

 

_It's something unpredictable_

_But in the end it's right_

_I hope you had the time of your life_

 

She remembered how surprised she was when Margaery gave this to her. It'd been over dinner, the same night that Sansa's first big research piece was published in the Times. "We had both been so busy since we moved. I had just started working and the Times and was doing a lot of research on a very important article, and your Mom had just started her new job too. She'd been staying up late each night to make this for me in secret..." Sansa explained. Ygritte had walked over, sitting in the chair next to Sansa and pulling Katie into her lap.

 

"Why don't you tell us the stories behind some of these?" Ygritte suggested. "I'm sure Katie would love to hear them."

 

Sansa nodded, and opened up the book to the first page.

 

**XxXxX**

**June 22nd, 1996 - Ten Minutes pre-Wedding**

 

"Gods dammit," she cursed under her breath. It was only ten minutes to go before she had to be downstairs for the wedding ceremony, for _her_ wedding ceremony, and she was spending it bumbling around her hotel room at Arbor Villa, frantically searching for her contact lens holder that had fallen somewhere on the ground. She'd knocked her glasses off the nightstand and then ran her knees into the bed frame twice and the dresser once. She only chuckled to herself a little bit, knowing that Margaery would see the unavoidable bruises and scrapes later, probably making fun of her and asking what she was doing on her knees to get bruises like that.

 

It was then that she remembered that Arya's room was adjoining hers. She figured it was a miracle that she was able to feel her away across the room, banging on Arya's door once she got there.

 

"Seven bloody hells, I'm coming!" She heard Arya yelling from the other side, then the door opened a second later. "What in the name of the gods is going on in here, Sans?" Arya walked past her sister and looked around the room. "...and why does it look like a wild boar ran through here?"

 

"I knocked my contact case off the bathroom counter and you know how blind I am! I can't find them and we've got to be in the lobby in less than ten minutes now." Sansa frantically spat out. She could feel herself starting to panic.

 

"Whoa there. Calm down. You don't want to look all worn out for pictures," Arya said. She grabbed Sansa by the shoulders and shoved her down to sit on the bed. "I'll find them."

 

It only took a minute for Arya to find the contact case, and she carefully guided Sansa to the bathroom so she could put them in.

 

"Ya know, you should've just called me earlier. I'd have helped you find it and then your room wouldn't look so ransacked," Arya said as Sansa reappeared from the bathroom.

 

Sansa scoffed at her. "Oh, well, you know me. I always take the opportunity to get scrapes and bruises all over." She bent over and pulled her dress up, showing off the quickly blooming blue bruises to Arya.

 

"Well, at least now you've got your 'something blue', right?"

 

She startled Arya then, pulling her into a tight hug. "That was the worst joke ever," Sansa laughed when she let her go. "But exactly what I needed. Run and grab your stuff and I'll meet you in the hallway."

 

Arya quickly ran into her hotel room, grabbed her purse, and joined Sansa in the hallway. She linked her arm with her own and waited for the elevator.

 

"Here," Arya announced, pulling a disposable camera from her purse once they were in the elevator. "We need to capture this moment when the amazing and valiant younger sister saved her poor dear older sister from temporary blindness and almost being late to her own wedding."

 

"If you insist," Sansa replied, but she was more than happy to oblige any actual sisterly moment with Arya, for they were few and far between.

 

Arya handed the camera to Sansa to hold out in front of them, smiling as she tried her best to hopefully get them both in the frame. At the last moment, Arya went up on the toes of her heels, kissed Sansa on the cheek just as the flash went off.

 

All Sansa could do was laugh as the elevator doors opened and Arya grabbed her hand to pull her out.

"Come on, Sans. Time to get you married..."

 

**XxXxX**

**September 1994**

 

"Can you believe how much money we made?" Gendry asked, as the group of them walked back to the Stark house. "We've got to have at least a hundred bucks from only two hours."

 

Jon nodded in agreement. "I know! I mean, seven hells, if I'd known this was possible I would've sat out here in the commons instead of going to class."

 

"Um, you guys know that most of those people who gave money probably thought we were all homeless..." Sansa remarked, looking back and forth between everyone.

 

"What? No, no. We don't look homeless, do we, Sans?"

 

It'd been a gorgeous day. The trees were all still green, the sun was out, and there was just the smallest hint in the wind that autumn was coming soon. Margaery's only classes were in the morning, so she'd waited outside the language arts building for Sansa's noon class to be over, and they began the walk home together. They were interrupted about halfway, hearing their names shouted across the grassy tree-covered commons, and soon recognized Jon, Theon, Robb, and Gendry all sitting in the middle of the commons. The boys had been playing Frisbee for a while until Gendry walked up, guitar case in hand, and asked if it'd be cool if he practiced for his acoustic show at the coffee shop that night.

 

Ygritte showed up about a half hour later, backpack full of food, soda, and a couple of hidden flasks of vodka, declaring that it was wonderful weather for day-drinking.

 

Two hours later, all the food and drink was gone, Theon had fallen over more times than necessary trying to catch Robb's frisbee passes, and Sansa and Margaery had persuaded Jon to join them in singing along with Gendry. His guitar case was open in front of him, and despite the fact that he was the only one of the four that could sing worth a damn, the donations were piling up.

 

At some point in the day, a student reporter from the campus newspaper walked by, explained that he was writing a photo article about how the students all over campus were spending their time on the warm autumn day, and asked if he could take their picture. It was the perfect piece of university propaganda - all smiles, two of them in Highgarden t-shirts, Gendry front and center holding his guitar and looking handsome, Theon clutching the Frisbee, and Sansa and Margaery with their arms around each other's waists as Jon and Robb did the same with Ygritte. Years later and they all had copies of it... and so did everyone who'd purchased a yearbook that year too.

 

"Well, no, Robb, you don't look homeless," she replied, then winked at him. "The jury's still out on Theon, though."

 

Before she knew it, Theon had run up behind her, picked her up off the sidewalk, hauled her over his shoulder, and started to run ahead of their group. Laughter exploded out of Sansa as she tried to pretend that she was actually upset about this.

 

"Mags, help!" She yelled, trying to look up at Margaery from the upside down position she was in. "You've got to save me from him!"

 

"Guess that's my cue, boys," she replied, tipping an imaginary hat and jogging off towards Sansa and Theon.

 

**XxXxX**

**June 1997**

 

"Alright, does everybody have everything? Speak now, or forever.... forever go without things for the weekend," Sansa announced. She was standing on the sidewalk in front of the unofficial Stark house in Highgarden, checking off items they would need for the weekend on a mini note pad.

 

"I think we're good, mom," Theon said, the normal snarky look on his face leaving for a moment when he saw Margaery coming up behind him.

 

"Very funny, asshat. I'm not gonna feel one bit sorry for you when we get to Starfall and you've not packed any boxers." She pretended like she was going to hit him across that head, but instead grabbed his shoulders and moved him towards the van.

 

Surprising Margaery, Sansa, and Ygritte, it hadn't taken hardly any persuasion to get the guys interested in going to Lilith Fair with them. It was easily a ten hour drive to Starfall, even with the new highway finished and then they'd be camping in the provincial forest for the weekend, but once they were only a half hour into the car drive, secrets came out about the guys' crushes on some of the ladies that would be performing - Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Fiona Apple - their list went on and on.

 

After all the acts had finished, the group slowly made their way back to the large field that was serving as a parking lot. Starfall was always warm in the summers, even at midnight they didn't need jackets on their walk to the van.

 

"Guys..." Theon called from the driver's side door, his voice uncharacteristically shaky. "I think we have a problem."

 

"What?" Jon asked. "You're not too drunk to drive us all back to the campground are you? I'm sure someone else can drive the van." Jon walked around to the driver side door of the van, joining Theon and finally figuring out what he was on about. "Well everyone, this night just got interesting."

 

"Is there an actual problem?" Ygritte asked.

 

"If you call being locked out of the van a problem, then yes, there is an actual problem."

 

"Are you shitting me right now?" Margaery asked from the back of the group, going through her bag and hoping that maybe there was an extra set of keys hidden there, even though it wasn't her car.

 

"Would I make this up, Mags?" Jon asked. Sansa's nickname for her had quickly spread amongst their friends. "Our only set of keys is in the cup holder right now."

 

"Great. Now what are we supposed to do?" Margaery walked over to the van and looked in the windows, confirming for herself that they all were outside, and the keys were inside. "We're ten hours away from home and it's almost midnight. It's not like anyone can come help us."

 

"I dunno," Theon answered. He was still on the other driverside of the van, looking in the window. "Can't we call like AAA for assistance, or what about a locksmith?"

 

"Gods, Theon. Triple A isn't going to come out here at this time of night.... and I'm not even sure if locksmiths still exist..." Margaery snapped back at him, which quickly led to the rest of the group starting to yell and argue.

 

"Guys, everyone... come on now. Let's just calm down. Look on the bright side, yea?" Sansa grabbed Margaery's hand, pulling her to sit down on the cement curb in the open spot next to the van. "We just saw an amazing day of concerts, we're all together with our best friends, and at thankfully it's a nice night out." There were some grumbles, but soon everyone had joined Sansa sitting on the ground, except Jon and Theon, both hell-bent on finding a way into the van.

 

Sansa's words might have jinxed them, as not five minutes later the skies had opened up and it was pouring down rain.

 

**XxXxX**

 

"Wait, so how did you get home?" Katie asked. "And who are those two other ladies in the picture?"

 

"Well, almost all the other cars had left the parking lot, not one stopping to help us. The rain had started to let up a bit, but we were still drenched. And then, one of the big tour busses drove by, and actually stopped to help us. That's who those two people are," Sansa continued to explain. She pointed to the people in the picture - their whole group, looking like drowned rats, with Theon and Margaery with their arms around someone on the right side, and another new person on the left. "That's two of the ladies who we saw at the concert. You recognize Theon and your mom? That's Fiona Apple with them, I think they both had huge crushes on her. And on the other side by Ygritte is Lisa Loeb."

 

"So you got to meet your favorite singers... and they helped unlock your car? I don't believe you." Katie made a huff and crossed her arms across her chest, but they could both see her smile peeking through.

 

"Well, they didn't help us, but their tour bus drivers were able to get the car open. Luckily, our camera wasn't wet from the rain and they were nice enough to take a picture with us before they left. We were all soaked down to the bone but nothing could've made us happier. And do you know who that is next to Aunty Ygritte?" Sansa asked, pointing at the picture as Katie frowned and shook her head, looking over at Jon who had joined them in the hospital room about ten minutes earlier, having got off his work shift.

 

"That's your Uncle Jon, Katie. Look at how awful his hair used to be," Ygritte said, sending Jon a smile and then turning to Sansa. "I don't think I'd ever seen either of you so star struck before."

 

"It's okay, mummy, I think I'd be the same way if I met Shireen and Missandei." _She's clearly trying to help her hopeless, blushing mother_ , Sansa thought, then saw the extremely confused look on Ygritte's face.

 

"They're the stars of this kids' learning show on Saturday mornings that she loves. Shireen helps with reading and Missandei teachers the languages of Essos," Sansa explained, leaning over as Katie continued to flip through pages. The next page she flipped to, a picture fell out, sliding across the linoleum. Katie jumped off Ygritte's lap, said she'd get it, and quickly returned, inspecting the photo on her way.

 

"This picture looks funny," she announced as she climbed back up onto Ygritte, then handed the picture to Sansa.

 

"It's called a Polaroid. It used a special type of film and camera and the picture was ready in just a few seconds. You didn't have to go to the drug store to get the film developed. They were very popular when I was in school.... but gods, I haven't seen this in forever," she flipped the picture over and looked at the date - September 1993. "You don't wanna hear about this one, do you?"

 

An enthusiastic head nod and chanting of "yes, yes, yes" was all she needed. "This was taken almost ten years ago, from the first time your mom and I spent time together."

 

"Was it your first date?" Katie asked with a huge smile on her face.

 

"Oh no, no. That came a few months later. I was new in Highgarden and your mom decided to take me on a tour. We went all over the place that day and this right before our drive home. There was a man making balloon animals and he mad e these crowns for both of us..." Sansa explained, her voice trailing back.

 

"Why don't you tell us about what you did at the beginning of the trip? Maybe we can plan a family trip later," Ygritte suggested, and Sansa nodded, starting back at the beginning of that day.

 

After a while, they'd all started speaking loudly, laughing and reminiscing, telling stories from years ago. They hardly noticed when the steady slow little beeps on one of the monitors got progressively faster. Katie noticed, probably lost in their grown-up conversation, pulling on the sleeve of Sansa's cardigan to get her attention.

 

"Katie, you know you're not supposed to interrupt when adults are talking," Sansa replied, confused, since usually her daughter was very good about that sort of thing. "What's wrong?"

 

"Listen, don't you hear that? The beeping noise," she added when Sansa shrugged. "I think it's coming from one of Mom's machines."

 

Sansa's eyes got wide as she jumped out of the chair and stood in front of all the various monitors that were hooked up to Margaery. She looked around frantically, trying to figure out which was making the noise, not like I'd know what to do, and then looked left and saw the heart rate and blood pressure monitor rising quickly

 

"Shit, shit, what do I do?" she asked, looking over at Ygritte, who had Katie in her lap still, and Jon standing next to them. "Do you thinking someone is already coming?" She took a step towards them, stopped, and turned back around to look at Margaery, then the monitors, then back to Jon and Ygritte, trying at all to control her panic in front of Katie but failing desperately.

 

"Hit the emergency button on the wall over there," Jon said, calm and collected. Sansa was usually thankful for this part of his nature, but at this moment she wanted to slap the calmness off his face.

 

"What? Where...? I can't..." she craned her head, trying to look between cord to find what he was talking about. "Godsdammit, where is the bloody thing?"

 

Before she had a chance to finish her sentence, Jon was already out in the hallway, yelling for help.


	10. Still Into You

**Ch 10: August 2013: Still Into You**

 

"Hey, lemme see your schedule. Do you need the laptop?"

 

"Nah, Mom printed it before we left yesterday," Ned said. He brushed wavy brown hair out of his face and then pulled his messenger bag up from the hardwood floor. After a few seconds of pushing papers around, he smoothed out the crinkled schedule and handed it across the coffee table to his cousin Val. He didn't notice the slightly disgusted face that she made watching him smooth out the schedule. She was a year younger than he was and even more of a surprise to Jon and Ygritte than Ned was to Robb and Jeyne. "I think she still is under the impression that it's how it was twenty years ago, ya know? Standing in line for hours at the registration building to sign up for classes and using punch cards."

 

Val rolled her eyes at him. "She knows it's done online now, stupid. Aunt Jeyne's just worried. Believe me, it was even worse with my dad when I started classes earlier than everyone else," she said, then looked down at his schedule. "Ugh, gods, Ned! I can't believe you were able to get into one of Tyrion Lannister's history classes your freshman year. You know how lucky you are? From what I heard last year, there's a waitlist of seniors that aren't able to get into his seminars."

 

She passed the paper back to Ned, who snatched it out of her hands quickly with a smirk on his face. "Well, I guess I'm just lucky then," he said.

 

Not a second had passed until they heard the front door open, slam shut, and then another voice joined the conversation. "I heard that luck had nothing to do with it!" A female voice yelled from the other room, one they both quickly recognized as their younger cousin Katie. A second later they heard the front door slam shut and Katie walked into the family room like she owned the place.

 

She walked over to the reclining chair next to the couch, let her backpack drop to the floor, then climbed up and sat with her legs crossed under her. "I heard," she repeated, louder than she needed to, "that it had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with --"

 

"Katie!" Sansa called from the doorway. She stood there with Margaery and all their overnight bags. "What have we told you about spreading rumors like that before?"

 

Katie said a quick apology as Ned and Val rushed over to hug their aunts and say hi to their younger cousin Alen, ten years old now. They both doted on him whenever they saw him, and he was well aware that he'd leave this weekend with a belly full of ice cream and pockets full of candy. They were interrupted by a cell phone alarm.

 

"Oh, crap," Margaery said. She grabbed her phone out of her back pocket and swiped to stop the alarm. "Medicine time. Sansa, do you mind grabbing my purse out of the car? I think it's behind the driver's seat." Sansa nodded and rushed off to the car.

 

Margaery had woken up that day, a few hours after Jon had screamed down the hallway for help. It took about two weeks until she was finally cleared to go home. The cause of her blood loss was never fully explained, but subsequent weekly doctor's visits afterwards quickly had her diagnosed with Sheehan's Syndrome - a pretty rare disease, at least nowadays in modern Westeros, caused many times by a large blood loss or low blood pressure during delivery, which ultimately harms the pituitary gland. It wasn't life-threatening, but she would always need to be monitored closely, and had to take a daily cocktail of different steroids and thyroid hormones.

 

It was annoying to keep track of all the medicine and routine endocrinologist appointments, but there'd been nothing she wouldn't have done to ensure she had years and years of life with Sansa and her children ahead of her, even though Sansa still mispronounced the names of her medicines and worried constantly about it she was getting the right dosages, but she loved how much she'd thrown herself into research about the disease, practically knowing more than Margaery herself, and how she always attended fundraisers and group meetings with her.

 

XxXxX

 

"Who'd have thought that after all these years we'd be back at the same place?" Sansa asked. She looked around the kitchen table, where all the "grown-ups" were sitting now.

 

Soon after Sansa and Margaery had arrived with Katie and Alen, Ned and Val had printed off the lists of books for their classes and walked off towards campus, Val saying she'd show him where everything important was, and Katie tagging along with them, desperate to be included in her older cousins' activities.

 

"I know," Robb agreed. "Thinking back though, it makes me a little worried to think of what sort of trouble Ned is going to get himself into his first year."

 

"Can't be any worse than our first year," Jon said. "Remember, you, me, and Theon all in this house? Regular Animal House 'round here until Sansa showed up."

 

"Yes, I'm sure that's _exactly_ what it was like. I don think you need to worry though," Sansa replied.

 

Robb shook his head. "You say that now, but just wait three more years until Katie is here."

 

"I mean it. Especially with Rickon and Shireen living here there'll probably be a lot less monkey business than when it was just us."

 

"I guess you've got a point," Robb said, nodding in agreement. "I'm surprised just about every day that he's got a real job. Anyone who knew him at thirteen would've thought he'd choose to spend his life living in the forest with a pack of wolves."

 

Margaery laughed at that. She'd met Rickon early on in her relationship with Sansa and that was pretty much her evaluation of him at that time. "Well, Shireen does a good job at keeping him grounded, and I think his job is quite enough adventure for him."

 

Everyone at the table murmured in agreement. They'd all been worried when he had decided to go to firefighting school right after high school graduation, but no one could say that they were surprised.

 

After a bit of silence, Robb pushed his chair back from the table, announcing that he was going to start getting food ready for the grill, and asking for any volunteers. Sansa and Jon said they'd help, while Jeyne wrangled Ygritte into helping unload more of Ned's things from the mini-van. Margaery mentioned she was going to take a quick walk to the coffee spot, since she'd driven the majority of the way from Kings Landing and wanted to stay awake until a decent hour.

 

XxXxX

 

Sansa was startled when she heard the door to her old bedroom creak open. She hadn't closed it when she'd come up here after helping Robb with some dinner prep, but she remembered that many of the doors in this old house had a habit of closing on their own. She bent over to look back through the window, and saw Margaery standing in the doorway, cup of coffee in her left hand.

 

"I have been looking all over for you. I should've known you were up here."

 

"You really should've," Sansa teased. "You can come in you know. I won't get in trouble for having a girl in my room."

 

Margaery crossed the bedroom, pushed the window frame up a tad higher, and climbed through onto the roof, letting out a loud groan when she sat down on the shingles next to Sansa.

 

"It's not quite as easy as it was twenty years ago, is it?"

 

Margaery laughed. "You're damn right it's not. Shit, Sans, has it really been twenty years?"

 

"Almost on the nose. Gods, I remember sitting up here, thinking all about how life was going to be different from then on..."

 

"And then?"

 

"And then I saw you," she paused, leaning down to quickly kiss Margaery's cheek. She saw the confused look she was giving her. "What, you don't remember? It was hot as the seven hells in this room, so I climbed out the window and sat right here, drinking a coffee from that place I worked at before the newspaper, just taking in the scenery. Then, all of a sudden, I looked over into the co-op backyard and there you were." Sansa looked toward the co-op backyard and pointed at the garden that was still there.

 

"I don't know how you've forgotten, I remember it like it was yesterday. You'd come out of the garden, carrying a basket of flowers and wearing a printed floral dress to match. You even waved at me, then took off your ridiculously large sunhat," she continued, reaching to grab Margaery's hair and gather it around one shoulder. "You had this wavy long hair that bounced around your shoulders and I very distinctly remember thinking that you were the most gorgeous creature I'd ever seen."

 

"Well, I remember the look on your face when you came to our welcome week party and encountered Renly and Loras at the door."

 

"Don't make me remember that! It was so embarrassing."

 

"You handled it wonderfully, dear," Margaery replied. "Especially when you realized Renly was a Baratheon."

 

"The best Baratheon," Sansa mumbled, and then saw the look on her wife's face . "What? Mags, it's true. Him and Gendry... okay, Myrcella is fine. And I guess Loras is now _technically_ a Baratheon..."

 

"I'm not arguing... you wanna know what else I remember?" Margaery asked. She moved her coffee cup to the other side of her, then took Sansa's hand and laced their fingers together.

 

"Hmm?

 

"That party, sitting out on the porch swing with you and hearing you describe Winterfell to me. I think that was when I realized you had me. It really took all of my willpower not to kiss you senseless then."

 

"Just think about how lucky you are that now that you don't have to use that willpower anymore and can kiss me whenever you want."

 

"Like now?" Margaery asked, her eyebrow quirking up in reply. Sansa ran her hand up Margaery's arm and shoulders, cupped her face and nodded, bringing her closer until she could feel her breath on her face, then quickly darted her eyes up to Margaery's eyes, then her lips, before --

 

"Ugh, gross, Aunt Sansa!" They both whipped their heads forward and down, and saw Ned, Katie, and Val looking up at them from the backyard.

 

"Yea, mom, get a room," Katie added, obviously amused with herself.

 

"Shut up, Katie!" Ned yelled, playfully covering Katie's mouth with his hand. "That's my window they're sitting next to!" Val stood on the side, unable to control her laughter.

 

"You better all be quiet or else no one is gonna get any hamburgers!" Robb yelled from the back deck. They couldn't see him from the roof but they could smell the burgers that were hopefully close to being done. The group of kids, all grown up and some almost there, run towards the deck.

 

"Come on, Sans," Margaery began, "Let's go. If we sit here any longer we're gonna have that black shit from the shingles all over our pants." She grabbed her coffee and climbed back through the open window into the bedroom. Sansa climbed through the window and Margaery immediately pulled her towards her, set the now empty coffee cup down on the desk, and let both her hands go around Sansa's waist.

 

"You know... they can't see us now..."

 

"Mags," she said in a mocking stern voice, "We can't do that _here_."

 

"Never stopped us before."

 

"Point taken. But this was my room before. Now, it's Ned's, and he's already worried about us defiling it. You don't want him coming up here to check and bursting in on us, do you?

 

"Fine, but I'm getting a rain check," Margaery replied, winking at her. She moved her hands from Sansa's waist and took her hand instead, leading her towards the stairs. "Just be glad that after twenty years I'm still into you."

 

"Oh, Mags, I know damned well you're still _into_ me."

 

Margaery looked over just in time to see Sansa with a shit-eating grin on her face, wagging her eyebrows the way Theon used to when he made some equally as pervy joke. She got zero reaction from Margaery.

 

"Oh, come on. That was funny! You know, Theon would've high-fived me for that one."

 

Margaery just rolled her eyes and continued downstairs. "Let's go get dinner, love," she paused, "And maybe later I can show you just how much I'm still into you."

 

Sansa laughed, turning around to shut the door on her old bedroom, and followed her wife downstairs to her family, children, and best friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's song is Paramore, Still into You.
> 
>  
> 
> In other news... it's done! I'm so amazed at all the positive feedback I've received from this story. I hope everyone is glad with the route I took :) And check out some of my other stories, if you're so inclined. There's some more Sansa/Mags in there.
> 
> -Jessica

**Author's Note:**

> There is a big lack of Sansa x Margaery fics which is rather sad. I've got some other ideas for subsequent chapters so if there is interest I'll definitely continue it (actually I probably will even if there is none). Title is taken from "The Scientist" by Coldplay.


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